


Bringing My Children Home

by Beathas



Series: Bringing My Brother Home - Alternate Bat Family Universe [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, F/M, Families of Choice, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Isolation, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-01-26 04:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 27
Words: 83,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12549196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beathas/pseuds/Beathas
Summary: When Stephanie Brown's Father gets out of prison early, Bruce takes her in to protect her. Just when she has gained what she has wanted for so long, Talia al Ghul drops off a new family member. As Cluemaster and Ras al Ghul threaten the Bat Family, can they overcome the hurts of the past and the arrogance of Bruce Wayne's son? Sequel to Bringing My Brother Home.





	1. Chapter One

**Bringing My Children Home**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat Family to practice my art.**

**Chapter One**

**Bruce**

" **W** hat are you doing here?" Batman thundered.

Spoiler looked up from her task of tying the hands of the robber she had just taken out. Her full-face mask hid her face, but Bruce could picture the proud grin the blonde had on her face. He scowled at her, hating the fact that she was on the streets. Despite her parentage, she had the means to escape the poverty she grew up in. He had failed to keep his children out of his vigilante life; he was not going to give way to her.

"I am tying up a robber. He was trying to get into that apartment there," Stephanie barked back at Bruce. Familiar, happy memories of Jason as Robin, audaciously leaping into this life, rose as they were wont to do around Spoiler's audacity. Jason had never showed fear of Batman's authority either.

She had to get out of the streets before she met a similar fate, one she might not come back from as Jason had.

"That robber was going to lead me back to his thieves' hideaway!" Batman growled.

"Well how am I supposed to know that when some jerk won't let me know what else is going on?" Spoiler yelled back.

"You aren't supposed to be out here in the first place! You are a little brat who thinks she belongs in ranks that are far above her, go home and stay out of Gotham at night!"

"That is not fair. None of the robins had any real training before they worked with you. You know I can do this. I am just as intelligent as Batgirl and Phoenix!" Spoiler hissed.

Batman seized her shoulders firmly and spun her around, before pushing her a few steps down the road. He braced himself for further argument, and she was drawing herself up to do so, but then she stilled, turning her face to the roof top. It was easy enough to guess what caught her eyes. Robin was perched on the nearest roof top, where the Dark Knight had told him to wait when he saw Spoiler's brief tussle with the would-be robber.

Her fight died away. The purple cape fluttered outward as she turned and ran. Batman did not show desperation, but in the sturdy armor he wore, Bruce Wayne wanted to give chase, tell her to be safe, tell her she had so many other options. Instead he turned to the wide-eyed robber.

After his interrogation of the teenager was over, Bruce freed the boy, giving him enough cash for a few meals and sending him to a shelter supported by Wayne Foundation, hoping he would go. There was little the boy could tell him that the Bat did not already know. Bruce had hoped to follow him to the hideaway location where the ring of thieves met. That was not to be. It was possible that Robin might need to go undercover after all.

Speaking of Robin, the teenager had rappelled down to the street and was approaching his mentor.

Bruce did not need to see the set to Tim's shoulders to know that Robin disapproved of the way the man had dealt with Stephanie. Tim never said anything on the field about his disappointment with Batman's methods of discouraging would-be vigilantes who were only going to get themselves crippled or killed. Back in the cave Tim would speak, urging for a gentler handling, or occasionally asking the Bat to give Spoiler a chance.

Of course, nothing was said until patrol was over, when they were back in the cave, removing the costumes of the dynamic duo.

"Bruce, she's only going to fight harder now for your attention and approval," Tim sighed, laying off his cape and then pulling off his upper armor. Bruce, as he had for a year now, automatically scanned Tim for bruises that should not be there. It did not matter that Tim's abusive parents were out of the country and rarely came to see their son, and would never dare touch him again for fear of what Bruce would take from them. Bruce had failed for two years to see the bruises for what they were. He had yet to forgive himself.

"She doesn't belong out there," Batman answered, removing his cowl. Alfred and Cass were in another part of the cave, but both Nightwing and Phoenix had made personal bases. Nightwing was on the edge of the Haven, formerly Bludhaven, now part of Gotham. Phoenix was in the city proper, though he was in and out of the cave more than the first Robin. Jason had recently set up his own apartment, determined to be his own man. Bruce was grateful that Cassandra had decided to move into the Manor permanently instead of dividing her time between there and Barbara Gordons. The patriarch had become used to having teenagers in the house again. They also drew their older brothers home more often. It would not be long before his two adult sons would be spending more time in Bruce's home than their own apartments.

"But telling her that is just making her take more risks. There must be a better way. Couldn't you try offering her an out? Maybe give her a better place to live, help her mom out..." Tim said.

"I know you've asked if you could help her with that and she refused it," Bruce retorted. Tim's face fell. Robin, for once unable to figure the situation out, changed slowly, distracted by his thoughts. He and Bruce were both sitting at their stations, typing up reports for the nights patrol when Oracle called in. Bruce answered.

"Bruce, was Stephanie out tonight? Cass doesn't know where she is," Oracle demanded.

"Yes, unfortunately. I sent her home."

"We need to tell her to keep away from her apartment. Arthur Brown made a plea deal with the DA, to get out of prison early in exchange for some information. Crystal Brown picked him up from Blackgate five hours ago. Stephanie's in danger!"

Bruce could not breathe. Had he sent the child into danger by refusing to work with her? Was his family about to have another member harmed by their own parent?

**Stephanie**

"GO HOME!" Batman picked Stephanie up by her shoulders and shoved her down the road. She spun around and braced her black gloved hands on her hips. Of course, Batman was not proud but was furious with her. He seemed to have two modes when it came to her, angry disapproval and apathetic ignorance. Of all his partners, and yes, Stephanie was the only one to call herself his partner, Stephanie was the one who could not break down his walls.

Richard had simply joined Bruce, Barbara had demanded to be a part of the mission, Jason had been chosen from the streets, Timothy had forced Bruce to accept him, and Cassandra had been so well prepared for the mission that Bruce did not even blink before he offered her his colors. Stephanie on the other hand, Stephanie was the loud, sometimes reckless, sometimes ill-planning, Spoiler who had first gotten into this hero gig because she was mad at her b-grade supervillain father. Even if she could be helpful, and even though she was dating Timothy, and was Cassandra's best friend, Bruce refused to accept her as worthy of his mission.

Spoiler took a deep breath to continue the argument for her worth, but she caught sight of her boyfriend on the roof above the two. She froze. Tim had likely heard the whole conversation. He had probably been standing there, watching the whole time.

Tim never said a word in her defense. Not just tonight, but he never stood up to Batman for her. Batman chewed her out whenever he found her as Spoiler in Gotham after dark, and Robin had never stepped in. She was not allowed codes to Batman's caves, she was not allowed access to his computer network, and she was barely tolerated on a good day. Yet her _boyfriend_ had never stood up to the man who would listen to him, not for her sake.

Hot tears burned her eyes as she stared at the black cape that fluttered in the growing wind, allowing a glimpse of the deep red armor beneath the cape. Tim stepped in for every other bat, but her. Not even he thought she was worthy of the bat. Just as her dad had never thought her worthy of his time.

Batman had already started his interrogation of the robber _she_ had stopped and tied up.

Spoiler turned and ran away, refusing to let Batman or Robin hear the sobs she could not stop. Her booted feet pounded the pavement in time with her racing heart. Tears poured out of her eyes, soaking the black nylon mask that she used to cover her face and making it stick to her skin. As always, no one found her worthy.

She stopped running only after she had put several minutes between her and the intolerant commander of Gotham's heroes. No one was supposed to move in his city without his permission. Even if Nightwing, Phoenix, Oracle, Batgirl, and Robin did disobey him at times, and were hardly scolded for it, Spoiler felt the full weight of his wrath. A stack of empty cardboard boxes in alley way made a good practice dummy. She punched and kicked her way through until they were strewn about in a wild mess.

Everyone told her she could not rise above her circumstances as an inner-city kid, that she could not be anything other than a poor brat with a criminal for a father and an alcoholic for a mother. Well Stephanie Brown had never listened to anyone when they told her she could not do something. When the neighbor boys told her that she could not play basketball with them, she had shown them up after hours of work. When a teacher had told her that she was stupider than the average kid in Gotham, she had crammed her head full of everything and won a scholarship to a better school (and made that loudmouthed teacher look like a fool). When her dad had told her that she could not hang out with him, she had discovered his criminal activities and led Batman and Robin to him.

Perhaps Batman was the strongest, smartest, greatest person who had ever told her she could not. So what? He had not taken the time to know her. He did not know about the brave, fierce little girl who was determined to make her father notice her. Cluemaster had noticed her after all! But Cluemaster was no longer her concern, sitting in his Blackgate prison cell. She had decided to be a Bat. She had decided to be Batman's Partner (daughter, please) and just because the stuck-up Bat could not see that she was worthy of his regard and instruction did not mean that she was not worthy.

No one told Stephanie Brown she could not do something. She would do anything they told her she could not.

**Jason**

Every time Jason came home to the Manor he felt a rush of gratitude and amazement. For two and a half years he had believed that the Manor, with strong, silent Alfred, fierce, but loving Bruce, and the hugging octopus named Dick had been closed off to him forever. Under the influence of the Lazarus pit he had nearly murdered the new Robin, attempted to murder the Joker, and had tried to force the Batman to break his sacred personal law of no killing. Yet during the time of his insanity, a new brother had been added to his family, a brother who had refused to accept that Jason was lost to the pit.

Said little brother was not in the upstairs portion of the manor. It was late, so this surprised Jason. He had ended Phoenix's patrol and headed over to the manor when he knew Tim and Bruce were home. In fact, no one was upstairs. Since Jason had doubled checked the network to be sure that everyone had come in without injury, he was puzzled. He hurried to the secret entrance to the cave.

Down in the vast cave network that was Batman's primary headquarters, Alfred was busy Alfreding, but Cass was leaning on Tim's chair, an anxious look on her face. Bruce was hunched at his station, graver than normal. Phoenix's chest tightened with concern.

"What's wrong?" He demanded.

"Arthur Brown got out of prison tonight and no one can find Stephanie," Cass answered, glaring at Bruce's head. Jason was not blind to the contention Stephanie brought to the family. Bruce did not care if she dated Tim, since she encouraged his self-esteem, and her loquaciousness was a blessing for Cass, but put Stephanie out in the field as Spoiler, and Bruce grew angry and tried drive her away.

"Bruce was mean to her," Cass informed Jason, after a moment of silence.

"And she's not at her house, and she's shut her phone off," Tim added, young face growing lines when his worry pushed his brows together. "We need to warn her."

"Is her dad abusive?" Jason asked, taking over another station. The surprised glances in his direction reminded him he had missed Stephanie's introduction to the family and had never actually heard the real story. Tim shook his head.

"Not physically. He neglected her. She was mad at him for ignoring her, so she helped Batman and Robin take him down. Only Arthur learned she had done so. He might be coming for her in revenge."

Bruce did not speak, but the tense set of his shoulders told his young partners all they needed to know. Despite his insistence that Stephanie did not belong, he was worried for the eggplant Spoiler.

**Stephanie**

When Tim had told Stephanie who he was in defiance of Batman, the only time he had ever defied Batman's rule, he had also told her about Batman's operations a little more. He had told her how there were multiple satellite bases. Tim had set up his own Safe house to run to if he needed to get away from Batman. Stephanie had liked that idea, and when all her efforts to get the Bat to accept her had been denied, she had set up her own small base in an abandoned building a few blocks from her mother's apartment. It did not consist of much, just a few essentials for when she needed to hide.

She spent the short remainder of the night there. Her mother would not miss her overnight, and she had shut her phone off after Tim had called a second time, without bothering to listen to his messages. His questions about how she was after the evening would simply add to her anger, and she had more than enough to fuel her into a new plan. If it took everything she had, she would make Batman see her as a worthy partner. Clearly her current route of trying to force his acceptance was not working. She needed a new way.

Leaning on the camp bed she had set up in her private safe house, she braided her hair and considered what it would take to truly be a Bat. Batman was Gotham's hero, a myth, and a living legend. Stephanie had grown up on tales of Batman, both good from those protected by him, and bad from those who would stand against his mission. When she had needed a father figure, she had chosen him.

He said no, but she knew she belonged. With her customary determination, she had attempted to be part of his family without his permission. Her crush on Robin helped a little, it had gained her entrance of sorts into the public family. Her friendship with Cass had begun as another attempt to get Bruce's attention, but for some reason Cass had liked her. Her relationships with Tim and Cass had expanded beyond a way to get into the bat family, but she was no closer to getting Bruce's attention.

If the situation was dire and she was already out on the streets, he would use her as an operative, always pairing her with Batgirl. Stephanie was not stupid. She knew this was because Cass was the best fighter in the world. Cass had been bred and born to be an assassin, with the most successful assassin Lady Shiva as her mother, and the legendary David Cain as her father. Stephanie could not be much help to Cass, except in speaking words, and over the last year Cass had become much more fluent in language.

All Stephanie wanted was for Bruce to notice her. Ok, she wanted him to accept her, train her, and make her his family like he had done with his other children. Jason and Dick's parents were dead, but both Cass and Tim's parents were alive, so it could not be that she had parents. It could not be Stephanie's father either, for David Cain was much more dangerous than Arthur Brown. The blond girl had no idea what drove the Bat to hate her.

"Bruce, I swear to you that I will make you realize that I am worth just as much as Tim or Cass. I can fight your fight and be your partner," Stephanie swore to her image in the dirty mirror before tending to her armor.

When Tim realized he could not stop her from going out onto the streets he had given her access to one of his bank accounts. Both pretended she did not use it, and Bruce did not know that Tim was hiding her relatively small draws from the account. She refused to purchase anything but protective armor for herself with the account, making the mask and hooded cape herself.

Her watch beeped the warning alarm as it approached eleven am.

Her mom would probably be wondering where she was soon. Crystal Brown drank too much, but her one joy in life was her daughter. She made sure to get up each day and make at least one meal, usually lunch on the weekend. Which meant that Stephanie had to show her face at least once a day. Crystal would occasionally ask where Stephanie was at night, but Stephanie had convinced her that her daughter had many friends who wanted to share their homes.

Changing into street clothes and grabbing her phone, she headed out. It was a little bit away to the apartment building she lived in with her mother, so she used the time to practice avoiding surveillance. Tim had shown her how to recognize Batman or Oracle's surveillance. Fifteen minutes later she was in sight of the ugly brown building. She turned on her phone as she ran up the stairs to her floor. She had eight messages from Tim, two from Cass, one from Jason Wayne of all people, and one from her mom. She scowled, but hit play on her voicemail as she trotted up the stairs to the third-floor apartment.

The first message was from Tim asking if she was alright, quickly cut off by Batman's orders to Robin. Sweet boy had called even before patrol was done to check on her. The second message was from Tim's phone number, but the voice was not Tim's.

"Stephanie," Bruce's voice made her flinch. He was still upset with her when he called. "You need to stay out of your apartment." Crazy man. She opened the front door and walked in to the apartment. "Your father was released on an early parole this evening."

There was more but Stephanie did not hear it. Arthur Brown was sitting at the kitchen table, big, blond, and sweet talking to Crystal, who managed to have mingled hope and doubt on her face. The apartment door swung shut behind Stephanie before she had a moment to digest this information. Her parents looked up.

"Hello, Stephanie. My homecoming felt _spoiled_ by your absence," Arthur said.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	2. Chapter Two

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Two**

**Bruce**

**B** ruce gunned the engine of his motorcycle. Despite being dressed as Batman, at this moment it was a very worried Bruce Wayne racing through the streets in broad daylight. His entire family was looking for Stephanie. She had never answered any of their calls, although Oracle's surveillance suggested she had not gone home.

Tim was trying to remotely turn her phone on, to use it to trace her location. Jason and Cass were looking through the streets where Stephanie lived and patrolled, and Dick was leaning on a few of Cluemaster's allies to see if they had kidnapped Stephanie. Bruce himself, after several hours fruitless search, determined to head to the Brown residence to see what Arthur Brown had done upon his release. Fear that he would find Stephanie injured or worse made his hands tighten on the throttle. Arthur Brown had never laid a hand on his daughter prior to her actions that had sent him to prison, but he had never shown any qualms about physically punishing the men who had worked for him. Bruce could not allow another one of Gotham's children to suffer.

Memories of Tim's last birthday flooded the Wayne Patriarch's mind, filling him with shame and anger. He could not fail Stephanie as well.

He reached the brown apartment building where Stephanie lived with her mother. Within seconds he had climbed the fire escape and found the correct window. He opened it and entered Mrs. Brown's bedroom. A pause in the room allowed him to listen for noise. There were no voices, only a stifled sob coming from the living room.

It was not Stephanie crying, but Batman burst through the door. He stopped just cross the threshold.

Crystal Brown was sobbing into the arm of her ratted brown couch, Arthur Brown was slumped into an armchair with a blood-stained rag pressed to a cut on his forehead, and Stephanie Brown was nowhere to be seen. For the first time, Bruce remembered that Stephanie was not defenseless. It looked like she had been home however, since Crystal Brown's thin arms could not have swung the bloodstained pot with enough force to cause the very real concussion. Good girl.

"Where is your daughter?" Bruce growled, causing Crystal to scream in terror and Arthur to leap from his chair. His face managed to grow paler.

"Batman!" He gasped, falling weakly back into the chair.

"Where is Stephanie?" Bruce repeated.

Brown snorted. "Not here," He jutted his chin out.

Bruce restrained his desire to shake the man. He focused a heavy glare on him, before turning to the shaking woman.

"Mrs. Brown, where is Stephanie?"

"She ran out. She hit Arthur with the pot," Mrs. Brown said and burst into hysterical laughter.

Bruce let her laugh as he turned to the father. "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing," He said defiantly.

Batman seized him by the arms and pushed him against the wall. The images of Sheila Haywood, David Cain, Jack and Janet Drake replaced Arthur for a moment. Had another of Bruce's children been harmed by the parents who should have loved, protected, provided for them? Had Bruce's terror of losing another child caused him to leave Stephanie in danger?

Had Bruce failed?

"Where is Stephanie?" He growled. Where is Cass, where is Jason, where is Tim? Where was the ebullient, reckless Stephanie?

"How should I know? You're the one who stole my daughter and turned her against me! You're the one who taught her to fight! I barely touched her!"

Bruce growled. Arthur realized he had slipped up, and tried to back up. Crystal's giggling faded into choked sobs. For a moment, Batman stood above the criminal, wanting to mete out the punishment he had never been able to give the parents of his other children. He slammed his fist into the wall next to the man's head.

"If you so much as touch a hair on her head again, you will never walk again," he swore.

**Stephanie**

Cass's training had really paid off. She had seen the fist, heading for her stomach, before Arthur had finished pulling back for the blow. With moves that were almost as graceful as Nightwing, if they had not reached Batgirl's level, she had dived out of the way, seized a dirty pot from the stove top, and swung it into her attacker's face. Spoiler watched him collapse with no regret. She turned to her mother, grabbed her hand, and tried to get her to run away with her daughter.

Crystal had refused to leave, and Stephanie would not stay.

High on adrenaline, satisfaction at her small victory, sheer stubbornness of spirit held Stephanie's head high as she stalked back to her safe house. She knew she had ended the relationship with her father by her actions, but there was no regret, not anymore. Her mourning had been done two years ago. It was her mother who she worried about. Stephanie was more caretaker than Crystal. What Arthur, no longer the father she had once known, might do to her mom was the most concerning thought.

She collapsed back onto her camp bed. That was when the tears came. All her confidence was a lie.

Her phone rang. She let it go to voicemail.

It rang again. And again. And again.

When it started ringing the fifth time she grabbed it, meaning to shut the phone off. Instead she lay frozen, watching the phone number for Bruce Wayne fade in and out in time to the ring. Something flickered in her heart, her great longing to belong to him. She waited too long to answer, and her heart sank when the phone fell silent for twenty seconds.

Then it rang again. Bruce, again.

"Bruce?" She answered.

"Stephanie! Thank God. Where are you?"

She knew the tone in his voice, she had heard it before. Just, never for her before.

"What?" She asked stupidly.

"Are you hurt? Your mother said you hit Arthur and ran. We need to get you to the cave. Tell me-"

"I'm not hurt. He never got a hand on me. I'm stronger than you know," She snapped.

"Where are you?"

"In my safe house, of course," Stephanie said.

"Tim, where is her safe house?" Bruce said in a muffled voice. Stephanie thought this was too strange to be real. "Trace her phone, it's on now."

"I'm just going to wake up now, Bruce," she said, but nothing happened.

"Don't hang up!"

Her hand froze on its way to the end call button. His voice had that edge to it that happened when Tim or Cass was in danger.

"Good job, that's not far from here," Bruce said to someone on a different communication line.

Surely, she had gone mad. It had always been her belief that her mind was strong, but apparently, she had been wrong. Only in her deepest dreams would Bruce be talking to her with frantic worry. She laughed after another minute or two of silence.

"Why haven't you hung up on me? Why are you even calling me?" She asked.

"Because I thought your... parent might have killed you!"

This time his voice was an echo. He was outside her hideout. She was going to kill Tim, or at least break up with him, for tracing her phone. After facing her biological sire, she did not want to face the man she wanted as her father. He would never give her what she wanted...

"Stephanie."

Batman was there, eyes sweeping her unharmed body. She stared at him, uncertain what to do with the attention she had fought for, for two whole years now.

"Yes, she's here. She's safe. I don't think she's hurt at all," Bruce told his comm. The exultation of his family was loud enough for her to hear. She sat up.

"I told you he never got his hand on me."

"I had to see for myself. You need to come home with me. You may be in danger if he puts a hit out among his contacts. I want you safe."

Stephanie may not have been the smartest, the strongest, or the wisest, but she had forced herself into his family enough that she heard the telltale rising of his voice. Bruce had said it, not Batman. For a moment, all was right in the world. Her joy pulled her upright and she threw her arms around him, reveling in this moment of acceptance.

To her amazement he did not push her away.

**Dick**

Dick had not realized how important the vivacious, undaunted Stephanie had become to the family. Bruce barely tolerated Spoiler on a good day, only permitting her in his circle when Batgirl or Robin brought her in. He had more grace when it was Stephanie visiting the Waynes, although the way Tim and Cass easily shared the Bat's work annoyed Bruce. To be fair, Dick and Babs had both tried to take Stephanie out of the field too. Yet she had become more and more familiar until Dick had forgotten his initial resistance.

When Jason had remembered to let Dick in on the news, the realization that she was in danger had been a punch to the gut.

His earlier morning interrogations of Cluemaster's former gang members had yielded no clue. None had even known Arthur Brown was being released. Bruce, Jason, and Cass were searching high and low, while Tim was in the cave, trying to hack Stephanie's phone. About midday, Dick headed to the cave to check on Tim, aware that their youngest member was the most impacted by the events. While Stephanie and Tim were 'dating', it was in that young teen way that simply meant they went everywhere together. On occasion Tim would make a special event, but as far as Dick was aware, at least Cass, and occasionally Jason, would crash these 'dates'. Even so, Stephanie had been Tim's friend the longest.

"She found all my trackers," Tim said glumly. "And it's taking too long to get into her phone."

"She'll be okay, baby bird," Dick promised.

Tim nodded, before turning a grim face to his computer again. Before he could start his fifth or sixth attempt on her phone, Bruce's voice rang through their coms.

"Tim, where is her safe house?"

Tim blinked. "I didn't know she had a safe house aside from the couple I showed her," he replied.

"Trace her phone, it's on now," Bruce ordered. Tim leapt to trace the connection from Bruce's phone. "Don't hang up!"

The barked ordered from the Bat was not for them. Dick held his breath as he watched Tim's program dial in on the phone's location. There were no more comments from the Bat in the ninety seconds it took for Tim to find, and shout out, the location of the phone.

"Good job, that's not far from here," Bruce replied.

The roar of his motorcycle could be heard for a long minute. It ended in a squeal of tires.

"Because I thought you... parent might have killed you!" Bruce exclaimed. Dick winced, recognizing the edge of hysteria that happened when one of his adopted Father's family was in danger.

"Stephanie," Bruce's relieved voice could be heard across the open comms. They all held their breaths.

"Is she there?" Tim demanded after ten seconds of silence.

"Yes, she's here. She's safe. I don't think she's hurt at all."

The Bat family sent up a cheer.

**Stephanie**

When Bruce rode into the cave with Spoiler behind him, there was a small crowd of bats awaiting them. Even Dick was present. Only Barbara Gordon was missing, likely at her day job. They all swarmed the motorcycle. Stephanie climbed off and grinned sheepishly at them, letting both Tim and Cass wrap themselves around her while the older pair turned to Bruce. The Bat explained what he had found.

"Good job, blond child!" Jason said, holding out a hand for a high five.

"Time for next level," Cass added. Tim let go and backed up a little, reading her frustration with him.

"I've prepared the room next to yours, Miss Cassandra," Alfred said. "Will you show Miss Stephanie to her room? Do you have any change of clothes, Miss Stephanie?"

"She can borrow mine," Cass promised.

"She'll probably steal some of Tim's too," Jason laughed. Although Tim was taller than Stephanie, he was of a thinner build than the older bat men, so Stephanie did often steal some of his shirts.

"Ooh, we could all go shopping for Stephanie's wardrobe," Dick suggested.

"Not until we have an explanation for why she is living here now," Bruce interrupted.

"She's Tim's girlfriend," Jason pointed out.

"Yeah, that will go over well with the press," Dick pointed out. "Neither of them are officially Bruce's children or wards."

"Just tell the truth," Tim interrupted. "It's not even publicly known that Stephanie and I have gone on dates."

"If you can even call them dates when Cass and Jason are always showing up," Dick added.

Tim glared at him, but continued his explanation.

"Her criminal father is home from prison. It is already known that Stephanie was willing to testify against him. It would make perfect sense that she isn't safe there. It could be a foster situation. Crystal has full custody anyway, so we wouldn't have to get Arthur Brown's consent.

"Maybe Mrs. Brown would be willing to go into rehab again, in case Arthur tries to come after her."

"Stephanie and Tim, you work out a way to get Mrs. Brown out of the apartment. If we need to get her into an out of town rehab center we will," Bruce said. "I will have Lucius consider legal options."

"Really?" Stephanie interrupted, staring at Bruce. "You want to take me in?

He paused and looked at her, mouth in a tight line, while the others stilled to hear the answer.

"I can't stop you from fighting in this war. I could have kept you safer by training you sooner. Had your father been quicker, he could have killed you. It would have been my fault for not training you. So yes. You are going to belong to me now. You will be off the streets until you are trained to my satisfaction, but you will be one of us."

"Welcome to the harshest boot camp you will ever face," Jason called.

"Jason will be helping train you. All of us will be training you," Bruce said in reply.

**Bruce**

"Bruce, are you ok?"

Bruce looked up from his desk where he was staring at the transcripts of Arthur Brown's deal. It had slipped through the cracks. Neither he, nor Barbara, not even Tim, had thought to flag Arthur's prison visits. Arthur had been easy to take down, a minor battle when compared to the crime lords Batman had fought. They had failed to see where Brown could gain enough importance to be released. Another child had almost suffered at the hands of their parent.

"Bruce, are you ok?"

Jason stood in the doorway of the study, looking worried.

"If he had killed her, it would have been my fault. Because I thought she would become you! Because I couldn't let another one in. I nearly got her killed."

"I hardly think she was in danger. She seemed to take pretty good care of herself. I think the realization that she could have been in a lot more danger made you realize you had already let her in," Jason replied. "You're going to have to follow through now. She's going to need you to keep your promise."

Bruce nodded. He had known that even as he told her. If he broke that promise he would break her spirit. That much he had learned from his other mistakes, in trying to protect Dick and trying to make Jason into Dick. If he tried to use the training to drive her away, as he had tried with Tim, he would break that promise. She was far rawer than Barbara and Cass, who had been given skills by their fathers, one to protect herself, and the other to mold a killer.

She had the will, however. If he looked away from the evil similarities to Jason he could see the optimism of Dick, the will of Barbara, the stubbornness of Jason, the courage of Tim, and even the raw strength of Cass. She had won a scholarship to a good school on her own merit. She was likely to have the same level of intelligence that Cass and Jason had. They would never reach the simple intuition of Dick, nor the sheer brilliance of Barbara and Tim, but there was no mean intelligence in them.

He did not want her to be another of his squires. The truth was, despite her unfortunate parents, she had had the greatest chance of being normal out of all his children. Dick was never going to be normal, Jason had grown up on the streets, Barbara was too much like her father, and neither Cass or Tim had been given a chance. Bruce himself had never had the real chance either. If he guided Stephanie, she would not have that chance.

Of course, he had failed to remove her from his fight. He had never succeeded in keeping them out of the fight. Now he had one more student, one more partner, one more child.

"I never planned for this," Bruce said. Dick and Barbara had joined them now, too. "I was not supposed to build an army."

"Except for Jason, you never chose any of us to be in this fight. We all made that choice ourselves," Barbara answered.

"If you aren't going to have children of your own blood, you need a family of some sort. We are just what you need," Dick pointed out.

"Can you imagine little Bruce?" Jason crowed.

"I picture Tim," Dick dryly pointed out.

Bruce shook his head at the elder two. "Tim is a distant cousin through the Kanes. I believe my mother and Janet Drake had the same great Grandparents."

"I didn't know you were actually related," Dick exclaimed.

"I always forget Tim's technically the rich kid," Jason laughed.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	3. Chapter Three

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Three**

**Crystal**

He stood in her vandalized kitchen. Gotham's Prince. Bruce Wayne, who could trace his lineage back to the Mayflower and beyond through two of Gotham's founding families. He stood in her tiny apartment, which her ex-husband had torn apart in a rage after Batman's visit the day before, and asked to take care of her daughter.

"You brought him in here, despite knowing he had threatened your daughter," the man said earnestly. He glared at the cans on her table. "Your daughter is in danger, Mrs. Brown."

She glanced away, the heat of shame flushing her cheeks.

After Arthur had destroyed the apartment, she had screamed at him to get out. He had yelled back that she was not worth his time anyway, before he left. Crystal had fallen to her knees, sobbing, in the debris of her life. After a hard cry, she had crawled into her armchair and drank herself to sleep.

"I know, but what am I supposed to do?" She sniffled. For a second his face hardened and she felt like she was looking at an entirely different man than the slow, earnest, rich man. It did not feel like she was drunk enough yet this morning to be seeing things like that. She blinked, and the fierce, powerful look was gone.

"Stephanie is good friends with my daughter Cass and my kinda-foster son Timmy Drake. You know the Drakes? They are out of the country on some archeology expeditions and I am raising Timmy, so he can have a stable high school experience. I would like to have Stephanie live with us. I have grown fond of her, and she's such a big help to Cass. Do you know Cass? She was badly abused and never learned to talk until she was a teenager. Stephanie has been a great friend in helping her," He babbled, glancing awkwardly around the room.

"She's the girl with aphasia? Yes, Stephanie introduced her once. I can't picture Timmy," Crystal said vaguely. Wayne's lips tightened briefly, then he picked up one of the fallen kitchen chairs. As he pulled it closer to her, he took hold of her hand.

"I know Stephanie is almost grown up, but I want to make sure she is safe through her last years of childhood and beyond," he said quietly. "I don't want to take her away from you. I would like to see you well and safe too, but my first concern must be Stephanie."

"Of course," the mother agreed. Here was a rich man offering to raise her daughter safely and securely. Stephanie would want for nothing money could buy. Her future would be assured. Worse, she would be able to be a teenager instead of her mother's caretaker. Not only was Wayne wanting to give Crystal's daughter the best material care, he was offering her a life as a child, with a safe family.

Oh, Crystal was not blind to what some said about Wayne's predilection for taking in strays. She did not believe them. She had been an emergency room nurse for over a decade before the stress got to her. Crystal had seen abused kids brought in by their abusers. The slender waif with speech issues had beamed when her adoptive father was brought up. She and Stephanie had eagerly shared all Wayne had done to help her.

There was the lanky teenage boy who stopped by on rare occasions, too.

"Is Timmy the quiet boy?" Crystal asked. Wayne looked surprised. "I'm not sure I was ever actually introduced. Stephanie usually darts out the door the moment he arrives. She doesn't want him to see _this_."

"Probably. I don't think Dick or Jason would be called quiet," Wayne replied in cautious vagueness.

"He's not in your home just because his parents are out of the country, is he?" Crystal said. "He's got that look when he sees me, as if he is expecting me to yell or hit. His mother hurt him, maybe his father too."

Now there was clear surprise on Wayne's face. Crystal smiled sadly and then looked away. Of the six pictures showing her daughter growing up, only one remained upright on their shelf. It was her first high school picture, taken days before her first blow out fight with her father. For the first time, Crystal could see the careful blankness in her own daughter's eyes.

"I am an alcoholic, but I was an emergency room nurse for a dozen years. I know the look of a neglected, abused child. Your daughter and the Drake boy both have it, but not when you are the subject. I am not a fool, Mr. Wayne"

"That makes your present situation worse."

She flinched but nodded in agreement. "I know. I really have no choice here. Do you know about her? What she did to take Arthur down? She made herself a vigilante. I'm not sure she ever stopped."

Silence met this declaration. The mother kept her eyes tilted downwards. She could imagine the shock on his face, the way he would change his mind, the disaster of her daughter in a cape. All because her mother had taken a drink, rather than stand up for her daughter.

"I don't tell anyone this, but you should know. I think you're a good man, but you might not want to run the danger," Crystal laughed. Bitter tears burnt her eyes. "The worst part? I hear of the purple cape and there is a moment of pride. That's my daughter, standing up for our city. I know what dangers she must run, and I've never managed more than a token protest."

As she rambled on, she became aware Wayne was still holding her hand, the grip tightening. She looked up, expecting disgust. Instead, she met the eyes of a man never seen in the public. His whole demeanor had changed. This was not some sheepish philanthropist. This was a man who knew exactly what she was saying.

"I am aware, Mrs. Brown," He said firmly. The thought flashed across her mind that there was more going on here than she knew. That Gotham's playboy Prince was nothing more than a mask for a brilliant, commanding man. She gasped, not certain she could believe that he was the Batman. He met her eyes. "I know. I mean to make sure she is safe as she stands up for the City, and the World."

**Stephanie**

Mom started to get out of the car before Alfred reached her door. Standing between Cass and Tim, Stephanie cringed a little as she wondered what the response would be. She was desperate for this to be real. Talking to her mom was the first legal step in making it real.

Cass tightened her grip on Steph's hand.

"Blondie's mom is here!" Jason roared up the stairs

"Are you okay?" Tim asked softly. She could almost forgive him, but he had kept a bit of distance between them, recognizing that she was upset, recognizing that he had made Batman and Robin's relationship more important than her. They would have to talk when the emotions of today had calmed.

"I will be. I hope, I hope she can accept this," Stephanie said, reaching out her hand in a peace offering. He took it in his cautious way, a bit of hesitation as he waited to see if he was truly welcome. This was slowly improving, but ten months could not undo all the conditioning of fifteen years. Cass tightened her grip on Stephanie's other hand. Unlike Tim, Cass could see the intent of each movement and always went to meet the physical attention eagerly.

With the hands of her two best friends holding her steady, she walked towards the stairs to meet her Mom.

Crystal looked a little worse for wear. She was not drunk, but not quite hung over either. Nor did she have any injuries, so Dad had not hurt her after Stephanie fled. That had been Stephanie's biggest fear.

"Mom, you're okay!" She cried, letting go of the warm hands and flying down the stairs into her mother's shaking embrace. "I was worried he would hurt you, but I was afraid I couldn't stop him if I stayed."

"I'm ok. The apartment is torn up, and I'm afraid very little of your room is salvageable," Mom said sadly. "I am so sorry, Stephanie. I thought maybe he had changed. I wanted him to have changed. I wanted to go back a decade to when we were happy."

"I know, I'm sorry, Mom," Stephanie replied. Bruce came up to them, his eyes sweeping over Stephanie like they so often swept over Tim. Warmth flooded her. He was still worried for her. "Did, did Bruce talk to you?"

"Yes, and I am so sorry I've failed you so badly. I should have been better, I should have been there for you," and Crystal broke down sobbing. Jason and Dick immediately backed towards a door, looking alarmed at the sight of a woman in tears. Alfred solemnly held out a box of tissues, while Bruce gently placed a hand on the mother and daughter's shoulders.

"We'll make it right," Bruce said in the calm, confident tone he used as a Father. "Stephanie has something more to add. Stephanie, she knows."

"Knows?" Jason demanded, from the doorframe as Mom rubbed her eyes viciously to stop the stream of tears. "Knows about the..." He stuck two fingers on either side of his head.

"Yes," Bruce said solidly. "She was worried that if I knew Stephanie was Spoiler, I would change my mind. She has given her word that the secret stays with her."

"Mom's good at secrets," Stephanie agreed. She took her mom's hands. "I want you to be safe too, Mom. I'll be safe here,"

"Or as safe as a Gotham vigilante can be," Jason interrupted, leaning casually in the door, eating a handful of peanuts pulled from his pocket. Stephanie glared at him.

"Not helping," She hissed. "Mom, Dad may try to hurt you when he realizes he can't get me. I want you to go to rehab. A good rehab. I want you to get better."

"Stephanie, that didn't work before," Crystal sighed.

"Part of helping you raise Stephanie, means making sure she can have a relationship with a mother that loves her," Bruce spoke up. "I have a friend, Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who has had success with some of her patients at a small, quiet center about an hour west of here. They are very discreet. The Justice League has partnered with them, and their staff are trusted to help the North American superheroes. Stephanie has won the right of protection under the Federal Vigilante Protection Act that finally went into effect this year. This includes you as her family."

"I thought you had to be associated with the League for that?" Stephanie exclaimed. "I've never been affiliated with the League."

"Anyone Batman registered with the League as an Associate is protected. I listed anyone who works in Gotham, whether I agreed that they belonged on the streets or not," Bruce said in a stunning reply.

Stephanie did not know how to absorb this.

There had been a battle in Congress about the vigilante superheroes for as long as the Justice League had been public. The arguments had initially started about how to regulate the group, but public opinion had gradually changed that to how to protect them. When a young meta vigilante was unmasked and then murdered, the Vigilante Protection Act was introduced. It finally passed two years ago, and went into effect the past January. The Justice League was granted immunity from revealing their identity, with fines and jail time for someone who intentionally and maliciously made the revelation.

The entire North American Superhero/vigilante community could no longer be hunted by the police for their work.

Now Stephanie belonged in that special group. Batman, Bruce, had granted her legal protection for the good she had done with Spoiler. Bruce had protected her even before he had opened his home.

"I don't need charity!" Crystal snapped, bringing Stephanie out of her dazed wonder.

"It's not charity," Bruce replied sternly, "You've agreed to give me parental rights to let your daughter finish growing up healthy and safe. Part of that includes having you healthy and present for her."

"I don't need your money!"

Stephanie cringed. Dick and Jason were backing up again, but Tim suddenly stepped forward.

"Mrs. Brown, what if we arranged to let you work for it once you are healthy?" He said mildly. Mom looked incredulous, but everyone else gave Tim their full attention. "With our family growing, Alfred could use an assistant in caring for us. Obviously, that entails a lot more than what a butler does. You were a nurse, so you have some of those skills."

"Please, mom," Stephanie murmured.

Please let us have this fresh start, please let me belong, please come back.

"Can I have some time to think about it?" Crystal asked cautiously.

"Of course, but we don't want you going back to the apartment. Perhaps a hotel?" Bruce offered.

"I have a home bound Aunt who always likes me to visit. I'll have to listen to a few sermons, but Arthur doesn't know where she lives. She only moved back to Gotham after he was sent to prison."

Relief flooded Stephanie.

**Cass**

When Stephanie decided to go to the apartment to salvage what she could, Cass and her three brothers came along. Bruce would have come with too, and in fact wanted them to wait until he could, but the girl did not want to wait. It had been overwhelming for Stephanie to realize that Bruce had been watching out for her, even while trying to get her out of the vigilante life. Their paternal mentor had no more qualms about sharing everything he had with Stephanie, from wealth, to protection, to training. After two years of longing, Stephanie was getting what she wanted.

It was more than she expected it to be.

Cass understood where she was coming from. Jason and Tim also understood. Despite Bruce's arrogant, domineering nature, he never wavered in his affection, his protection. For the four younger members of his growing family, they had not always had that protection from their biological families.

Dick alone was oblivious to the slight weariness in Stephanie's eyes as he drove them into the city. Fortunately, his chatter was all about his thoughts on opening a gymnastic center, since his cop career had ended when Bludhaven was annexed by Gotham. It was one thing to be Bruce Wayne's son in Bludhaven, though only fifteen minutes away, but when reorganization had meant he would be working with long time Gotham cops, there had been immediate issues.

They were pretending like Stephanie was not dazed by the sudden changes in her life. By tomorrow morning, Bruce Wayne's wealth would have paved the way for his legal guardianship to be approved.

When they got to the apartment, Jason and Dick insisted on scoping it out first, leaving the three minors to stretch themselves out after being a bit cramped in the car. With her favorite brother and her sister, Cass was content to wait.

"All clear!" Jason hollered above their heads from the apartments front window. Tim glared half-heartedly, but Cass was not worried about being noticed. They had all dressed down, carrying themselves not like the Waynes, but a bunch of young men and women helping a friend out. Baseball caps, beat up jeans and gym shoes, and no one would do a double take to see the Waynes in these middle-class kids.

The apartment was trashed, remnants of Cluemaster's fury. Cass tightened her fists, imagining Stephanie under that fury. No more chance of that. Stephanie belonged to them now.

Stephanie tensed when she saw her bedroom, which was worse than the rest of it. Most of her things were broken or slashed. Clothes, books, knickknacks in a sad pile on the floor. Around her, their brothers tensed, seeing how dangerous Arthur Brown could be in unrestrained fury.

"I think everything needs to be replaced," Tim said firmly, "let's salvage what we can and make a list of things we need to get."

Stephanie poked around the piles, occasionally stiffening when some important picture or present appeared. After a few minutes of picking things up and tossing them in the garbage bags Alfred had sent along, the tension bled out of Stephanie. She darted into the closet, rummaging around until she emerged carrying a backpack with drywall dust and spiderwebs on it. A smile beamed at the curious onlookers.

"He didn't get the really important stuff," she announced opening the bag. There was a change of clothes and a small bag of sundries on top, but underneath it was a locked box and a photo album. "These are my mementos of the last couple years. Plus, it's my emergency kit. Everything else is replaceable."

Jason poked his nose in the back pack.

"We need to review your idea of an emergency kit. You don't have any food here," He pointed out seriously. None of the others had ever been in a place where they could not get food, although they had all trained themselves to think that way. It was always the first thing in Jason's kits, the consequences of being a street kid.

"Oh, I have some in my safe house, plus I can get into some of Tim's stashes," Stephanie shrugged.

"I think my first lesson is going to be showing you the various safe houses and stashes around the city," Jason replied fiercely. "Timmy has shown you what he knew he could get away with, but now you have to know them all."

"Plus, we'll need to update your safe house now that we can get you on the official network," Tim added. "And I've already started a list of other things we can do. Bruce will want to revamp your costume to include a few extra things, but you will need to make the final design."

"Oracle has had your bat network profile ready to go for months," Dick interjected, "she was just waiting until she was mad enough for Bruce to give in to her."

Stephanie looked at Dick in shock. Both Cass and Tim had done everything they could without attracting Bruce's attention. It was obvious their friend had no idea that Oracle had even accepted the idea that Spoiler was not leaving the fight.

"Bruce never hated you," Cass spoke up when the shiver of fear ran through Stephanie's body. "He's always been afraid for you, afraid that you would get hurt. That's why he pushed you away. No, it was not fair to you, but he never pushed you away because you weren't important."

"Bruce doesn't know how to show his care and affection the right way," Dick added, resting his hand on Stephanie's tense shoulder. "Believe me, I know him. None of us have never doubted that he is a bully because he was afraid for us."

"He won't change his mind about me?" Stephanie asked, her normal brilliant personality shrunk to a shy, frightened child for the moment.

"No. Sometimes, if you get hurt, he'll overreact and want to pull you off the streets. You'd think after five of us, he'd be used to it, but most of us have learned to give him a little leeway when he is worried," Dick said with a shrug.

Warmth filled Cass when she saw Stephanie relax.

**Bruce**

Jason, Dick, Cass, and Tim were out on patrol, leaving Bruce with Stephanie in the cave. Oracle had set up Spoiler's access to the Bat Network so quickly Bruce had a feeling she had been planning it before the events made Bruce realize Stephanie belonged there despite his fears. Suspiciously, Stephanie had a working knowledge of the network already, something the Dark Knight rightfully attributed to Tim. Mingled guilt and relief that Stephanie had had a safety net of sorts as she fought so hard to be recognized, filled Bruce.

The short relationship between Tim and Stephanie had ended amicably that same day. They could not publicly date while living in the same house, where the tabloids would make a big deal about it. Stephanie was hurt by Tim's decisions to keep his protests about the Bat's treatment of Spoiler private. Both teenagers had been relieved to find they were on the same page. Considering very little changed between them that afternoon, except that Tim was more distant about getting into Stephanie's personal space, Bruce suspected the momentary attraction had been more about the need for peers in their vigilante lives.

"Tim will be setting up your bank accounts for both your personal needs and for Spoiler," Bruce said as Stephanie played around with some patrol logs. "I assume you wish to keep Spoiler and not change the identity?"

Stephanie gaped at him. "I'm getting bank accounts?"

Bruce frowned, trying to remember if Tim or Cass had said the same thing. Jason had, but Jason had had the least out of them all. Thinking back neither of the other two current minors had been surprised by the accounts, though Cass had shown a little amazement in the amounts at her disposal. Tim was the least fazed by it all, and had his fingers in the shared accounts sooner than Dick or Jason ever had.

"Of course," Bruce said cautiously. "I'm not going to treat you differently from the others. I've made that mistake once. You're mine, now."

A pair of blue eyes blinked at him. "But I've not met your training requirements yet."

"I think you will meet them faster than I expect. Besides if you ever chose to give up Spoiler, you will still need the personal account."

Her eyes only grew wider. Bruce felt a little self-conscious, uncertain about her reaction. All of his children had reacted in similar ways when realizing what they had access to. It was as if they did not believe that everything he owned was theirs too. He was now Stephanie's official paternal figure, so of course this included her.

"You'd keep me even if I wasn't part of the Bats?" She whispered, her voice smaller than he had ever heard from her.

"Of course," the patriarch said, as dumbfounded by the question from her as he had been from each of the others. He had not taken Dick in to have a partner. He had brought Jason in as a partner, but even that was in hopes of saving the boy from the statistics of Crime Alley, not as a servant.

"Wow," Stephanie whispered, "you really don't get how amazing that is."

Words came easy to Batman, to Brucie, to the various masks, but Bruce, the grieving boy who still held the wound of losing his parents, often struggled to speak the words his chosen family needed.

"I'm not just Batman," was what he came up with for this daughter, "Batman is a big part of me, but so is my family. Part of Batman's mission is to make sure children don't grow up without parents. All of you are another part of that mission."

She wiped her eyes and grinned up at him. "So, Bruce, what should I learn first?"

The father was grateful for the diversion away from the emotional impact of having children. Actions had always spoken more truths than words, but not everyone read his actions the same way. Apparently, some of his children needed words as his actions. He knew he could crush her with rejection now. Bruce wondered how so many of his children's biological parents had never trembled under the weight of having that kind of power, had even used that power to shatter the young men and women.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**

**Next Chapter: The Introduction of Damian!**


	4. Chapter Four

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Here we meet Damian. I hope he comes across both as a sympathetic and antagonistic character.**

**Chapter Four**

**Tim**

It was early in the morning for a bat. Tim, however, had woken early. The previous evening had been a quiet, spring night in Gotham. He had stayed home from patrol the night before, for a training session with Stephanie.

Bruce had spent the first two weeks training Stephanie in the important network, communications, reports, and administration of being a Bat. For the most part the two weeks was spent together, figuring out how to work together after almost two years of rejection. Jason, in the meantime, undertook to instruct her further in martial arts with Cass as an assistant. This left Dick and Tim to teach her deduction, while Babs and Tim were undertaking the technological aspects.

There was no regret on ending their dating relationship. In fact, Tim felt more comfortable with her now that they were only friends. Although she had never pressured him, he had always felt like he was failing as a boyfriend. In a way, the relationship had been to protect her since Bruce would not.

Now that Bruce had taken Stephanie in, Tim did not need to find ways to make things available to her. She was getting it from Bruce. He loved her for certain, but was relieved he did not have to play the part of boyfriend. Cass had suggested it was because Tim did not have any good role models.

He certainly did not want to be the playboy Bruce pretended to be, always holding women at arm's length. Alfred was of no help either, since he had never gone on a date in Tim's memory. (Probably in Bruce's memory either) Jason flirted a little with Donna Troia, but he had made no move to get into a relationship. As for Dick, Tim had tried to emulate him, but it did not work for Tim.

To be honest, Tim wondered why he had ever thought trying to play the charming, ebullient man would work for him. It did not actually work for Dick. Dick had been in more relationships than Bruce. (Real relationships, not the pretend dates Bruce used as his Brucie Wayne cover) None of his exes hated Dick, but neither did they trust him with their hearts.

Dating, Tim decided, needed to wait a little longer.

His lack of patrol the evening before had left him with more sleep than usual, so here he was at 8 am, seated at his desk in his room, reviewing his recent missions with his Young Justice friends, who were looking to reform the Teen Titans. Bruce had grudgingly permitted Tim to finally share the Bat secret with his friends, after Jason and Dick had demanded that Tim be given more freedom. It had gone a long way toward healing the breach between Robin and the others of the disbanded Young Justice.

An alert skittered across his screen, one of the alerts for the possible entry into the country by an Al Ghul. An investigation into the alert revealed it was for Talia, which was surprising. Talia rarely traveled in a traceable manner. She had many aliases. Not Bruce, not Tim, not even Barbara had been able to track them all down. This alias was one she knew was known to the Bats. She had landed at the Charles Kane airport only three minutes ago.

Talia al Ghul was in Gotham, using an alias she knew would get their attention.

**Bruce**

Gotham's richest man had woken up just a few minutes before his third son's text alert woke the rest of the Bat Family up. He had been examining his day's schedule. Tim and Stephanie had been in contact with Crystal Brown the day before. She had not yet agreed to go into rehab, still on the fence about it. She had signed over parental rights to Bruce, and had taken refuge in her strait-laced aunt's home. It had been more uncomfortable than the one Bruce had blackmailed the Drakes into accepting. Crystal had gained nothing, but given her daughter away to keep her out of danger.

Unlike his other children, Stephanie had the opportunity to stay in touch with her mother.

He had been mentally cataloguing Spoiler's weaknesses to determine where to work on her training next, when Tim's text popped up on his phone, warning that Talia was in Gotham. Talia was a bittersweet thought. Twelve years ago, right before he became the Bat, he had believed he had fallen in love with her. When he had refused to join the League of Assassins, he had offered Talia a home with him. She had refused.

There was now a decade of bad blood between them. He did not know the extent of her part in the deception of Jason's death. Even if he still warmed at the thought of their happy year, he knew better than to give her the benefit of the doubt. While she was not her father's equal, she was easily among the five most intelligent women he knew.

If she was coming to Gotham, there was something major in the works.

Bruce heard Jason yelling at Tim for waking him up with the text. Naturally, Tim had recognized the threat and alerted the entire bat network. Perhaps even part of the Justice League. When the Wayne patriarch emerged from his bedroom in clean, casual clothing, he found Cass and Stephanie were just down the hall, standing by Tim's doorway. Tim was talking.

"- there appears to be about five people traveling with her. I haven't matched who they are yet, but I've got a tracking program watching her in the airport. Once she gets through Customs, we will know where she travels next."

A bleary-eyed Jason stalked up behind Bruce, dressed only in a ratty pair of sweat pants, with his shirt in his hand. It appeared he had forgotten about it, for he just kept holding it as he joined the small crowd at Tim's bedroom door. Tim finished his explanation of what he had done since receiving the alert. He quickly repeated his findings on where Talia was coming from to Bruce and Jason.

Bruce found nothing to add to Tim's preparations.

"What do you think she is doing in Gotham today?" Jason yawned, draping his shirt over Cass's head as he stretched. With a smirk, Cass put the shirt on over her tank top and shorts. "I was going to take Blondie and Silent out this morning to let them go shopping without the attention you, Dick, or even Tim would draw."

"I've not noticed that Stephanie is destitute of clothes since Cass and Babs took her shopping a couple weeks ago," Bruce remarked. "In time, she will need more formal clothing, but I believe your shopping will be postponed. Talia is never blunt. She wants me to know she is here. It is very likely we will see her today."

"Shall I prepare a luncheon in case of her visit?" Alfred interjected from where he was waiting at the top of the stairs for the sleepy group.

"Yes. I trust you remember her preferences from her last drop in," Bruce said wryly. It had been eleven years ago that Talia had dropped in, that time unexpectedly. She had been furious with Bruce for taking in orphaned Dick Grayson. When Bruce pointed out that she had refused his offer to be part of his family, she had stormed away, predicting Bruce would be sorry for taking in a child of no name, of no family.

After Jason, she had not come to his house, but had berated him the first time they met after that.

Neither Cass nor Tim had drawn such a reaction. Cass was too well respected as the Weapon of David Cain and Lady Shiva. Tim, being a Drake, had both family, name, and fortune, besides the distant relationship to Bruce himself. In the al Ghul culture the distant relationship would be enough to warrant Bruce's actions. So, it was likely that the news that Stephanie had been moved to the Waynes on a permanent basis that was bringing her.

"I believe she may be upset with my decision to make Stephanie part of the family," he explained to his children who were gathered around the breakfast table. Dick had dropped a text to offer his services or support when it became known what Talia wanted. Dick was also the only one who knew of Bruce's youthful relationship with Talia.

"Is this the whole Ra's thing? Didn't he offer you a place in the League? Were you supposed to marry Talia to be his family?" Jason was suddenly wide awake. "Is your betrothed mad that you are making a family without her?"

Even Tim looked eager for the explanation. Stephanie and Cass were giving each other looks which promised a good gossip over Bruce's relations with the al Ghuls. There was little hope that Jason would not tease, and as soon as Stephanie felt secure in her place, she would be joining him. Cass would just look knowingly at him. Tim, who was supposed to be his smartest child, would come up with strangely innocent questions.

"Er, no. Talia and I did have a relationship while I trained with the League, but that had nothing to do with her father. It probably would have become political if I had agreed to Ra's desires. I did ask Talia to leave and come help me in Gotham. She refused," Bruce said.

He spent the next quarter of the hour attempting to explain how a man, notorious for not asking for help, would ask the daughter of a criminal to help him fight crime. Stephanie found it tragically sweet, Cass found Talia to be a fool, Tim went down rabbit trails of what Talia could have been, and Jason referred to Talia as Bruce's betrothed from that moment on. The questioning ended when Tim's alerts informed them that Talia had made it out of the airport and into a limo.

It took a half hour for her to get through morning traffic and into the posh neighborhood. When they knew she was heading for the manor, Jason and Cass took Stephanie off to 'train', while Tim joined Bruce in his study to review their League of Assassin Protocols.

When the dark limo was granted entrance at the gate, Tim joined Bruce in heading for the door. Alfred appeared in stately butler mode. The seriousness of these three was contradicted by the wide grins of his nearly twenty-year-old son and the two sixteen-year-old girls coming down the hall behind the butler. Training Stephanie had apparently been about dressing her up as a high society daughter, with some of Cass's designer clothing. Cass had also been dressed up, although Jason had only added a gray t-shirt to his ensemble.

The Limo rolled to an easy stop in the circled driveway. Two well-dressed men emerged. The Bats all quickly catalogued the number of possible weapons on both. Though they appeared to be nothing more than valets, they moved with the confidence and grace of the Assassins. One opened the door.

Tall, slender, beautiful Talia al Ghul stepped out. She wore a green cheongsam with a pale-gold cardigan to ward off the late spring morning's chill. Her dark eyes glanced up the vast stairs leading to the main entrance to Wayne Manor. There was amusement on her face when she saw the entire group of residents gathered. Then she turned to the car.

A boy exited the limo. He was young, no more than eleven or twelve. He was well built and handsome, with the light olive skin of his mother. It was his other features that made Bruce freeze. His hair was the dark of Bruce's father, and his eyes were the blue of Bruce's mother.

"Holy son of batman," Jason said irreverently.

**Damian**

"What is this, Talia?"

The tall man who spoke was clearly Bruce Wayne, Damian's father. The eleven-year-old had seen many pictures of the man. Mother had spoken of Batman often. She had promised Damian his father's name, his father's respect, his father's power. The only threat to this was the rag tag set of children, with whom Father had surrounded himself.

"Bruce, this is your son. I thought you would be pleased to have one of your own blood. You certainly enjoy being a parent to those not of your blood," Mother said.

The biggest of the group at the top of the stairs snorted. Father cast him a glare before looking back at Mother. Clearly Todd was not a great threat if he so easily annoyed Father. Neither were the girls. Cain was possibly a real physical threat, but her speech disability put her below Damian. As for the girl whose entrance into Father's home had sparked mother's decision to move up her plans for Damian meeting his father, she was nothing.

Pennyworth was not even in the threat assessment. He would serve Damian as he served Father.

This left only the slender teenager at Father's shoulder. Timothy Jackson Drake. The only real rival Damian had. None of the others came from good blood, or had any traceable relationship to Father. Naturally Damian had been instructed on all of Father's riffraff, but special attention had been paid to this one. Drake had done what the others had not, by forcing Father to take him as Robin. He had excelled at Robin.

He also was related to Father through the Kane family. Mother had speculated that the reason Jack and Janet Drake had given their son into Bruce Wayne's care was because Bruce meant to make Tim his true heir. Grandfather had said Father was as likely to give the circus performer his wealth as any of the others, but admitted that it was possible that Father would groom Timothy to be his heir since Drake was like Father.

"Could you really have kept this hidden from me for almost a dozen years?" Father asked.

"Of course. My father always drew your attention from me. I am a mere fly compared to him. You never did look at me as a woman again," Mother replied. "His name is Damian. He's come to take his place as your son and heir."

While Cain and Todd looked down at the boy with great amusement, both Drake and Brown stiffened slightly. Good. They knew he was the real Son.

"Are you not going to let your own son, and the mother of your son, enter your home? I can understand your suspicions. However, we both know it will be easy for you to learn the truth. Altair, Desmond, bring Master Damian's suitcases inside," Mother ordered.

Now all four of Father's pretend children tensed up, their eyes going to Father. For a moment, Damian believed they were afraid of losing their stolen home. This was soon disproved. All of them relaxed as soon as Father stepped aside to permit the entry. They had merely been waiting to see if Father would let Damian in.

Aware of his Mother's severe gaze, Damian swallowed his seething. He would soon prove his right. Mother had had him trained for as long as he could remember. She had given him the strength and knowledge to defeat them.

Talia offered her hand to her son. Damian took it, his rage quieting at this unexpected pleasure of touch from his Mother. It was a strong sign of affection and protection. While at his strong Mother's side, Damian could hold his head above those who had been abandoned, neglected, given away. That he could keep the attention of his Mother was a sure sign of his rights.

"Shake your father's hand, Damian," Mother instructed, when they were on the same level as Father. Damian stuck his hand out in the proper aggressive way of the West. Father hesitated for a moment, but his eyes softened, and he took Damian's sturdy, calloused hand in one of his large, powerful hands. Now, Damian had gained attention from both parents.

He glanced loftily at his rivals.

Only Drake looked a little uneasy. There was something cold about Todd as he looked at Mother. There was cautious curiosity in Brown's eyes. Cain's reaction was the worst. She looked at Damian with pity.

**Cass**

The boy expected immediate affection from his Father, and believed the simple handshake was proof of it. While Bruce had softened, so that he did not frighten the child, he was still tense and suspicious of the boy. Talia's body had betrayed no lie when she spoke. This really was Bruce's son. It angered Cass that a mother could keep a child from a father they knew would want the best for the child.

By hiding Damian, Talia had deprived both father and son of the bond that Bruce had known with his own father. Now there would be anger, regret, suspicion, distress. When Talia left Damian with them, as Cass was certain she would do, Bruce would not drive the boy out, but neither would he elevate his blood son above his other children. In time, he could come to love Damian, as he loved the others.

Damian would not understand.

When Bruce spoke fondly to Dick, when he glared in amusement at Jason, when he gave Cass his little hugs, when he checked on Tim every day, when he gave his time to repair what he had almost lost with Stephanie, Damian would not understand.

"I'm gonna call Dick, Cass," Jason whispered in her ear, as they let Talia lead the interloper into the home. "Keep an eye on Tim. Stephanie gets it, I think, but Tim might be afraid."

Even if Jason could not read people like Cass could, he was right. Stephanie had had a few brief thoughts that maybe Bruce would kick her out again, but had relaxed as she recalled his promises. It was Tim, whose own parents had never given him the simplest caress, who was tense with old worries that he did not fit in with Bruce's family. Cass took Tim's hand and squeezed it. She smiled at him reassuringly.

He briefly squeezed back, and let her hold his hand as they followed the invaders into the guest parlor.

"Perhaps one of your riff raff would care to show my servants where to put Damian's things," Talia suggested.

"Considering I had not planned on his arrival, there is not room prepared for him," Bruce pointed out.

"Well, Pennyworth will fix that up quickly."

"You mean to leave him here."

Talia looked calculatingly at her son. He straightened his shoulders and lifted his head high. Cass forced her hand to keep Tim's in a gentle hold. She could not reveal anger to Tim, because his insecurities would make him believe he had done something wrong.

"Well, if you insist on taking in every pathetic child that comes your way, you should at least know that you are depriving your own blood of his rights," Talia taunted.

Despite all his self-control, Cass read the distaste in Bruce's face. Damian did not see it, only growing prouder at his Mother's words. Cass wished, for a moment, that Damian would go back with Talia. Her family had just begun to be complete with Stephanie finally belonging. They did not need an arrogant, self-entitled boy to make things harder. It was an unworthy wish. Damian needed Bruce just like the rest of them.

"We've had a similar discussion before, Talia," Bruce snapped. "They are my children, even if I did not sire them, even if some of them don't carry my name. Even if Damian really is my blood, it does not give him any more rights than the others."

"That is why I will leave him. So that you can bond with your own blood and realize what you've been missing. No, I will not take refreshments. Damian, you will stay with your Father now. Do remember who you are," Talia instructed. She rested a manicured hand on her son's shoulder for a moment.

"Yes, Mother," Damian answered.

"Talia, you can't just drop him of!" Bruce began.

"Oh, I'm sure you will run the DNA tests before the day is over. All his accurate identification is in his smallest suitcase. There is a birth certificate, passport, health records, everything you need. I will likely visit on occasion, but he's yours now," She answered.

She gave Bruce a cold smile, before she turned to leave. Her eyes fell on Tim, and all of them saw the way she looked furiously at him. Tim did not flinch. Talia was merely another villain to the Robin. Even he felt pity for Damian, at that moment, and would very likely empathize with the smothered longing Damian could hide from everyone, but Cass.

"Talia, that's not how this works," Bruce ran after her. They could be heard arguing in the hallway. Eventually, their voices were out of range.

"Master Jason, I believe I could use your assistance in moving Master Damian's things to one of the guest rooms," Alfred said, into the quiet that fell on the room after that. "Master Damian, Miss Cass and Master Timothy will see that you have refreshments."

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	5. Chapter Five

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**I hope my version of Damian is satisfactory. Everyone seems excited about him, so I'm a little nervous he's going to disappoint you.**

**Chapter Five**

**Stephanie**

Considering the look Talia had given Tim, especially when counted with the little boy's fierce look at the same, Stephanie felt it was not the best idea to leave Tim in charge of seeing to Damian's welcome. Tim would know how to be utterly polite and hospitable, as his upbringing demanded, but she could not help thinking Damian would take it as an insult. Cass paid little homage to politeness. For all her poor childhood, Stephanie knew how to be the friendliest.

"Hi Damian, I'm Stephanie Brown. Bruce is taking care of me while my Mom is sick. This is Tim Drake. His parents travel a lot, so he lives here. And this is Cass, your adopted sister," Stephanie quickly spoke up before Tim had calculated his proper response. Cass was obviously content to just observe.

"Tt. I know who you all are. Mother made sure I knew all about Father's Charity cases," the little boy sneered. "I am surprised that Grayson is not here."

"Dick is here a lot, but he has an apartment in the city too," Stephanie replied. "He's adopted too, right, Cass?"

"Dick and Jason," Cass agreed.

"Are you excited about having siblings?" Tim offered. He gave a pleasant smile, which made Stephanie proud. "When Dick said we could be brothers, it was one of the best moments of my life."

Damian glared at Tim.

"Father won't need any of you now," he said.

Stephanie's heart sank. For a terrible moment, she imagined losing all she had gained in the past two weeks. When Cass took her hand, however, she remembered that Bruce had promised. This would be a test of those promises, but Stephanie did not think blood relation mattered more to Bruce than his chosen family.

She straightened her shoulders and continued to do what she could to distract Damian from Tim.

**Bruce**

Bruce could say with all honesty that he had never wondered if Talia had had a child. When he had taken his place in Gotham, he had been very careful to avoid getting someone pregnant. There were certain women who wanted his children, so they had a claim on his fortune. With Talia, he had never thought about it. He had been young when infatuated with Talia. It had not occurred to him that it had been a possibility.

While he would run the DNA test, he was certain the boy would prove to be his.

Alfred had foreseen that Bruce would not be able to stop Talia from dropping this on him, and had taken the suitcases away. For a moment Bruce wondered if Alfred would put the boy in the same wing with the family, or in a guest wing. Of course, it would be the family wing.

This could not have come at a worse time. Bruce was still trying to adjust to Stephanie belonging to him. He needed time to work with her, to train her, to assure her that he had been wrong to reject her, and she was part of his family now. What would this interruption do to her? Bruce had nearly lost her life, now he might lose her trust.

Then there was Tim. With Tim's parents still alive, and publicly known, Bruce was not able to adopt him as he had Dick, Jason, and Cass. It had taken a lot of work to make sure Tim's doubts were reassured. Tim was so self-reliant that it would be easy to set him to the side if the others demanded his attention.

What of the boy, of Damian himself?

In the parlor, Stephanie was chattering, only a little crease in her forehead betraying the tension she was under. Cass was leaning on Tim's shoulder, for which Bruce was grateful. Tim gave Bruce a little smile. It did not hide his worry.

"Here," Damian pulled a few hairs from his head and offered them to Bruce. "Mother said to give you some hair, so you can have proof that I am your son."

Bruce looked over the boy carefully. There was a good deal of resemblance.

"I will run the test. No matter the result, I will be sure you are not abandoned," Bruce said, wearily. "Has your mother told you everything?"

Damian nodded proudly. "She told me you were Batman and the others are your servants."

Stephanie and Cass both snorted. For a moment, Bruce wanted Dick's easy manners to help here. Then he realized that it would come with a good deal of teasing and joking. Although, he could not avoid that now. More than likely, one of the teenagers had already let Dick into the know. Barbara, too.

"My children are my partners, not my servants. Have you been introduced?"

"Brown tried to, but there is no need. Mother made sure I knew everything about them."

"Your Mother is only telling you her point of view. You should not accept whatever you are told. Would you want to watch me run the DNA test?"

"I have some training. I could assist. Mother made sure I have at least begun learning skills that you can use," Damian said. "I am an excellent warrior, I am a genius like you, I am better than the others could ever be."

This was going to be a very long day.

**Jason**

If not for the fears of two of his family members, Jason would have made himself popcorn and followed the newly met father and son around. With no fears that this would steal Bruce's affection, it was hilarious to Jason that the Batman had been surprised. Being a big brother came first.

Cass did not need a big brother. She was leaning on Tim, asking him to help her work on her computer skills. The same neglect that had left her mute and illiterate when Bruce had taken her in, meant that computers were as foreign as words had been. Tim had been her best advocate. He and Stephanie had taught her to talk and read. Right now, Cass would be Tim's support and keep him from overworking himself to prove he was worth Bruce's affection.

That left Jason to work with Stephanie.

He had admired her spunk from the first. Where Tim had doubted he had any worth, Stephanie had always believed herself worthy and capable if given a chance. Tim had worked hard for his place, but he had done so out of the belief that there was no one else to do it. Stephanie had been fighting for a place because she knew she could hold it.

She did not need someone to keep her from overworking. She needed someone to validate her confidence. That Jason could do easily. Not in the subtler arts the Bats used. Bruce and Tim could teach infiltration, deduction, and manipulation better than anyone. No, Jason could teach her bluntness and flair. There was no doubt she already had audacity in spades. He would show her how to use it.

"Come along, blondie. You and I will get in the way when Timmy goes Techno. Let's go research our new 'brother'," Jason said, draping his arm over her shoulders. "I can't wait until Dick gets here."

"Are you sure Tim doesn't need us?" Stephanie asked as they left.

"He'll be fine. Cass will make sure he's distracted, and Dick will make sure Bruce knows he needs reassurance. In the meantime, we need to figure out what the little brat's game plan is."

"What if it's just to be Bruce's son?" Stephanie asked. Of course, she felt sorry for the little runt. It was entirely possible that Damian could become a real member of the family, but Jason was not going to hold his breath. The way Talia had looked at Tim had raised his hackles.

"Better safe than sorry," He answered her. "Talia pretty much threatened Tim. Who knows what she told the kid to do?"

Startled by that thought, Stephanie followed him to the room Alfred had just finished preparing, to help snoop through Damian's suitcases.

**Dick**

Having been with Bruce for over a decade, Dick had to admit Jason's news was not as much of a surprise to him as it was likely to the others. Bruce had only been about twenty-five when he had taken Dick in. Although Bruce had become his father, the first few years, it had been more like having a serious, heroic older brother. Something had changed after one of the more serious injuries Dick had suffered.

Dick could remember when Bruce had played the play boy far less circumspectly than he did now.

While Jason had been unable to stifle his delight in the new events, Dick had to admit being surprised by the knowledge of who was the mother. Jason had not shared the age of the boy, nor had Dick remembered to ask. Knowing that would likely give some answers. For now, getting to the manor was most important.

Dick did not know who would need him most. Bruce could be the easy answer, but Stephanie and Tim were also good possibilities.

The manor seemed deceptively peaceful when Dick arrived. That was strange. For a family that were technically trained ninjas, who could elude superpowered heroes and villains alike, the manor was their safe place where they could be silly, emotional, weary humans. And humans did not live in ninja silence, so the manor generally rang with noise.

Alfred was the first one he came upon.

"Ah, Master Richard, it is good to see you home. This has been a day of surprises for the Family. They will all be happy to see you," the staid butler said.

"It's always good to be home," Dick replied. "What should I expect?"

"Nothing as dramatic as you anticipate. I am certain that will come later, but Miss Cassandra and Master Jason have undertaken to reassure and distract Master Timothy and Miss Stephanie. Master Bruce and... the boy are down stairs."

"And the boy?" Dick interjected wryly.

"Miss al Ghul called him Damian. He is nearly twelve years old. I foresee some complications, Master Richard. He was raised to believe he has all the rights of Master Bruce's sole child. I fear he has already caused a disruption to Master Timothy's peace."

"Alright. I'm going to head down stairs."

Wherever the other four had gone, which was far more places than one not used to the sheer size of the manor would guess, Dick did not see or hear any of them. Not until he made it to the cave did he see any other member of his family. Bruce was seated at his computer, clearly in the middle of research. A short, dark haired boy was seated possessively in the nearest chair, the one that Dick himself used when in the cave.

Although Bruce would have run a DNA test, the first sight of the child made it clear that he was Bruce's child.

"Did you clone yourself, Bruce?" Dick burst out. It was a regrettable interjection, but Dick felt less remorse than he should have. Father and Son both leapt to their feet, having failed to hear the light-footed acrobat descending. Bruce relaxed when he saw who it was, but the boy did not, glaring at the interloper.

"I hardly think you would be here today, if one of your siblings had not told you what happened this morning. Jason, I presume."

Dick grinned. Sure, given time Tim would have called, but not as quickly as Jason had. The grin answered Bruce's question.

"I reserve the right not to incriminate myself. Certain members of our family can be almost sadistic in revenge."

No, Jason was not part of the more violent pranksters in the family. Dick and Barbara were the worst offenders. This may have something to do with the violence the others' families of origin had raised them in. One of the first lessons they all had learned in their training was not to abuse their strength. Not that Tim could not be especially creative.

"Damian, I know you are aware who this is, but all the same, meet my first son and the strangest of my children, Dick."

"Don't listen to Bruce, kid. He has no sense of humor. Honestly, we all know that Alfred is the strange one of the family," Dick pointed out.

Ha! Success! Bruce snorted.

Well, half-success. The newcomer scowled viciously.

"You forget that he was MI-6," Bruce retorted.

"You make my point! No one else in the family belonged or belongs to a government institution. Certainly, Timmy has been scouted, but... "

"Why do you call the butler family? He is just a servant!" The boy exclaimed. "Father may have had some excuse to call his charity cases family, but not a servant!"

Ah. That explained the stress in Alfred's face, those little lines that no one outside the family knew meant he was upset. All the work Dick had done to lighten his mentor's mien was shattered instantly. A strong desire to throttle the boy spasmed Dick's strong hands.

"So, that's the battleground," the acrobat said softly. He straightened to his full height and stalked towards the boy, permitting himself to display his full strength and grace. Bruce let him in silence, aware as Dick that the boy was unlikely to respond to anything but strength now. The sheer arrogance of the boy startled Dick when even the clear display of power did not shake a moment of doubt from him.

What had Talia raised the boy to believe?

All Dick's anger died away. The boy's whole world would be shattered soon enough. Bruce was arrogant, stubborn, and could be hard to work with, but he had never claimed his long, illustrious line of ancestors made him better than the children he had taken in. Damian would learn soon enough that the mere fact that Bruce's blood ran in him gave him no rights. The elite of America ran through Bruce, but he was the only man Dick knew who followed the oft spoken, never followed creed that man was not worthy by his ancestors, but by his own deeds, his own strengths, his own intelligence.

"I assume you ran a DNA test," Dick said to Bruce, though he kept his eyes on the boy's face.

"Talia spoke the truth. His age fits the timeline of my last days among the league of assassins, when I thought I might be able to pull Talia out of that life. It never occurred to me that she would hide something like this from me, but the tests prove it."

"I will take my rightful place at your side, Father. Mother has trained me to do so. You will have no need of the others. I promise I am worthy," Damian said, straightening his young, small shoulders.

Dick had barely won the right to be Robin when he was thirteen, after a year of training. Jason had been thirteen when pulled from the streets, and fourteen before he was permitted to be Robin. Tim had been twelve when he thrust himself into their life, but had to go through a year and a half of training. Now this eleven-year-old expected to be allowed into the field.

"I believe it will soon be dinner time. Did Jason get to take the girls shopping?"

Bruce sighed.

**Damian**

Of all Father's strays, he had thought the least about Grayson. Despite being the first, he was now his own man, and the numerous disagreements between Father and the First Robin had caused Damian to think he was not a real threat. It took Damian five minutes in the man's own presence to realize how false that idea was. Father had visibly relaxed and brightened when the acrobat entered the cave.

Worse of all, the man had not been intimidated by Damian's blood status. He had been angry momentarily, but that had died into a look of pity. All the strays, even Drake for a moment, had looked at Damian with pity. This should not be tolerated!

Further shocks were in store, starting with the supper table.

First, the strays were all seated when Father, Damian, and Grayson entered. They were met with a chorus calling the eldest Robin's name. Drake left his seat to meet Grayson's embrace. While Damian watched this strange display of emotion, Father had taken his seat at the head of the table. The two seats beside him were occupied by Brown and Cain. Damian stalked to Brown, who had the right-hand seat.

"That will be my seat," he informed her.

"I already called it. You have to make it here first to choose your seat," she laughed at him. His fist tightened, but he knew it was not time to start something. He was sure the strays would band together, and while Father was still realizing who Damian was, Damian would need to be calm.

"You can sit by me, Damian," Grayson offered as he slid into the seat next to Brown, across from Drake. The only other option was to sit at the foot of the table, with several seats between him and the rest. For tonight, Damian would take the lower seat at the table.

Unfortunately, this put him across from Todd, who kept grinning like a lunatic.

"I believe we will have to rearrange patrol a little tonight," Father said once they were eating. "Dick, I know you aren't here for that, but perhaps you could partner with Tim tonight."

"Sure. Don't tell Bruce," Grayson said to Drake in an audible whisper, "but I know a 24-hour cafe that gives dashing vigilantes free coffee after ten."

"Sure, Dick, feed the caffeine addict," Todd snorted. "I feel left out. Should we partner up, little sis? I can find something better than coffee."

"Ice cream?" Cain asked.

"In the meantime, Stephanie and I will monitor from the cave," Father continued as if his strays had not made plans for fun in their duties. "Damian, you may join us."

"Ooh! Can Damian's call sign be Son of Bat?" Todd crowed.

"He will not need a call sign," Father replied. "He is a child several years younger than any of you were when you began."

Something more was implied in the conversation, something Todd came close to saying, but a nudge from Drake made him shut his mouth. Todd was proving to be quite an irritation, but was possibly the weak link in Father's strays.

**Stephanie**

Batman was not an easy teacher, but he was thorough, and he was far more patient than anyone would have expected. He was being gentler than she had seen him be with the others, hopefully just until they became comfortable with this new relationship. He was feeling guilty about her father, even though Stephanie knew it was not his fault. In time, she wanted the strict orders barked at the others, the confidence of him walking away, knowing she would follow, the respect that she was, not the best, but still worthy to be in his ranks.

"Tt, if you are having to train her now, after she's been trying to help for years, why keep her around?"

There was the fly in the ointment. Just when she had begun to gain what she wanted from Bruce, there came another. There was no doubt Damian knew how to fight. He moved with the certainty and grace of someone who had been training for years. Nor was he lacking in intelligence. He had already found certain weak points in them, their fears and insecurities.

"Damian, I know your mother has told you that you are worth a good deal as the son of a Wayne and an al Ghul," Bruce interjected, surprising both his son and Stephanie. "You should know that here that means much less. As my son, I have a duty to you and I will not shirk it, but I have chosen Dick, Jason, Tim, Cass, and Stephanie to be here as well, and my duty to them is no less than that to you. You may either retire to your room now, or you may watch in silence."

His hand came to rest on Stephanie's shoulder, warm and solid. It was a promise of its own. Even in the good days, when Arthur had not yet descended into villainy, she had never had that promise. She had always demanded her right to be seen, but for the first time she knew it was finally respected.

She was home.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	6. Chapter Six

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Six**

**Damian**

After an awkward week, in which the strays cautiously observed him, Father was distantly polite, and Damian discovered how informal the Manor was at times, the eleven-year-old realized Father was not going to hand him his rightful place without proof he was worthy. Mother had warned that Father was a strict, strong man who needed something more than words. He was giving Damian the chance to prove himself. Damian was going to have to fight to prove his right. The right of blood was not enough.

He had allowed his excitement to meet his legendary father to overcome his knowledge that blood was not everything. Weak blood must be culled from the line, and while Damian had spoken well, he had yet to make his move. Fortunately, Damian had not been completely overwhelmed by the move to his Father's home. He had studied them all that week.

His original thoughts were correct. Timothy Drake was his greatest rival.

Certainly, Father relied on Grayson and Todd, and respected Cain, but Drake was his right-hand man. Brown was little more than an experiment. It was Drake who patrolled with Father, who fought at his side, who could match wits with Batman. It was Drake whose cunning and intelligence impressed them all.

Drake had several weaknesses. His fighting style was not the powerhouse of the others. He lacked confidence when he did not wear Robin. Take away the mask and you were left with someone who doubted. Mother had vaguely mentioned that Drake's parents had abandoned him, but it was more than that.

Father and his strays were all very protective of the teenager. Grudgingly, Damian understood why they would protect Robin. His mind was a great asset. Fortunately, his mind was also his greatest weakness. Brown easily shrugged off Damian's carefully placed words of scorn. It was harder for Drake, who already believed the words.

"It took me days to figure that out! Good job!" Drake beamed at Brown.

"You basically told me what to do, Tim," she answered glumly. "I didn't just pick this up out of the air."

"I did the same thing, just I had a book to work with. I am sort of like a text book. You are doing good, Steph."

She smiled. "You're not good at the boyfriend stuff, but you are good at the friend stuff."

"I'm sorry."

"I know. It doesn't change anything though, does it? We make better friends than significant others. And the publicity wouldn't do Bruce any good."

"I can't wait to see what they do when the public learns of the brat."

Name calling was pointless. Damian clenched his fist. Drake's opinion meant nothing.

"I'm surprised it hasn't happened."

"How would it? He's not left the manor. The public doesn't know about anything inside the manor. It's our safe place, where we can be ourselves."

"That does make sense. I mean we are sitting in a public living room, and you are teaching me how to hack the Bat computer," Brown laughed. "By the way, Jason and Cass are insisting I can paint my room. Eggplant would make a lovely color."

Drake fake gagged. "It would almost be as bad as painting it black. If you must have eggplant, make it your comforter and sheets. I shudder at the thought of it being on the walls."

"Considering you and Damian are the only ones who haven't painted your rooms, I can't take your advice as being legit."

"I don't need anything else. My walls are pretty much covered with posters and pictures, so making it a particular color would be pointless."

"I still can't believe you hide your cases on the back of your posters. You guys are always talking about making Bruce take a break, but you are just as bad."

What? This was something interesting.

**Cass**

When asked to pick which room she wanted, Cass had immediately taken the one across from Tim, next to Dick's old room. At the time, Tim had only been a visitor, and Cass had been the only one living there, though she spent much time with Barbara. Now, with Damian and Stephanie living there, as well as Tim, and the older boys sleeping over half the time, it was proving to be a very good choice. Tim was her first friend, her first brother.

Stephanie had taken the room right next to Cass, while Jason's was across from Dick's. Damian had thus ended up next to Tim.

This meant there was nothing odd about Damian passing her door. But he was not even trying to hide his tells, which piqued her curiosity. By now, even Stephanie could read Damian, to an extent. Clearly, subtlety was not a skill he practiced.

It was her mastery, however, so she watched Damian pick the lock on Tim's bedroom door. He failed to see her. More and more, he had grown frustrated with the reactions of the others, until his barbs were spoken in anger as much as calculation. A calm head was another skill lacking in the boy.

He had not yet realized how much he was watched by them all. Sure, they were all polite, except Jason, respecting the intruder as much as they could. He was still a child, a child who had never been taught humility. He was sadly inept at recognizing that the thin veneer of politeness was their way of offering him a chance to belong.

Even Jason had not yet been blunt about the boy's misapprehensions.

It took him nearly a quarter of an hour to figure out Tim's special lock. That was rather impressive. It had taken Cass several days to figure the trick out. Of course, the lock itself was merely to annoy the others. None of them respected each other's bedrooms. They had each built work stations in the caves that were considered off limits to each other.

There were also hidden nooks around the manor where they were usually left in peace. Jason's was the attic or roof. Dick's was the corner of the family room. Tim's was the hidden corner in the library. Cass's was Alfred's private parlor. Stephanie had yet to make one. Bruce's was what Dick called his real office, the one above stairs but not his public one.

Although Stephanie had not acclimated to the idea that Bruce was not immune to the pranks and invasions, the other four never left him out when a prank war was on. Once she got the pulse of the manor, Stephanie would be one of the best through sheer impudence. The pranks were naturally muted after the scare for Stephanie, and the unexpected intrusion of Damian, but Cass knew very well Jason was already eyeing her for payback for her last trick on him. Once he figured it out the free for all would start again.

"Ouch!" Damian hissed.

He had gotten the lock picked and stumbled into Tim's trap, which was an electric shock if you tried to turn on the light, without opening the door far enough. Jason still had not figured that one out. It was going to be tricky to get Tim to install it for Cass on her bathroom door. There were some things she would rather her brothers not be able to get into.

It amazed her how much Damian was underestimating Tim. Of course, Damian had not yet seen a full-blown bedroom war, where every room was fair game, and allies were constantly betraying each other. Perhaps it had not occurred to him that the friendly rivalry, between what he called the 'strays', could be as sneaky as it was audacious.

He was aware that his own room had been sneakily invaded on his first day there. Talia had been sure to instill paranoia in him, so that he had set traps to watch for invasion. This was both entertaining and instructive. He was trained, but lacked certain experience.

A careful review of their last invasion of Tim's room, made her think Tim was not anticipating an invasion. He had yet to pay all of them back. So far Bruce and Cass were the only two he had managed to get revenge on. Cass beamed as she stroked the back of her hair, where a week-long strip of red had invaded after he successfully set a trap for her.

A hiss of anger made her return her attention to Damian. He had taken down the movie and music posters off Tim's wall. Cass was wrong. Her favorite brother had been anticipating his room being invaded after all. On the back of each poster was written: NICE TRY DEMON.

Jason was responsible for that nickname for Damian, despite disapproval from Dick. A shiver of laughter shook Cass. Tim would have video footage. He had bugged his own room for moments like this. It was one of the reasons he could prank his family most of the time, in his own room.

Then Damian pulled out a knife and stabbed it into the wall.

Suddenly, Damian's investigation was not simply sibling rivalry. Cass knew very well that Damian had just sworn to kill Tim. They had all known there would be trouble, but Cass had not expected Talia to leave Damian unprepared for his father's home.

**Bruce**

The tension of the dinner table was alarming. The manor had been on edge since Damian's arrival, but tonight there were very clear and dangerous lines drawn. Stephanie and Jason had sandwiched Tim, while Cass had herded Damian next to Bruce and then sat on the boy's other side. Not unexpectedly, Damian disliked Tim the most.

Besides being the nearest in age, there was a reason that the fifteen-year-old boy was considered his best partner. Certain criminals had caught onto Tim's intelligence quickly. Several had offered him places in their endeavors, places of no little importance. Bruce himself often marveled at Tim's genius, which surpassed what Bruce had been capable of at that age. What was not often understood about Tim, was that he believed it was Robin that gave him importance. This was why none of his other children were envious of the relationship Bruce had with Tim.

What annoyed Damian so much, was something that no one in Bruce's family would allow to be threatened. They had been working so hard the last year, to make sure their brother knew it was Tim they wanted, not just Robin. As much as the others wanted to be able to connect to their father in the way Tim did, not one had begrudged it to Tim. Until now.

"Father, will you allow me to show you my skills tonight?" Damian enquired.

A sharp look from Jason made Bruce pause. He had not wanted to see what Damian thought he could do. Firstly, because Damian was too young for Bruce to see on the streets. Secondly, because Bruce still was not sure what Talia intended by leaving the boy with him. Finally, because there was guilt that Damian had been raised from birth to be a fighter. He had been groomed to be able to take a place with his father.

Now Jason wanted to see what the boy could do.

Since Jason had been the most relaxed about Damian's introduction to the family, this sudden sharpness was alarming.

Stephanie was looking at him too, though her intentions were less clear. Bruce had worked with her most nights on one thing or another. He knew she was physically capable of being on the streets, but had determined to make her stay off them for a month, to give him time to reanalyze her strengths and weaknesses now that he had given way. Truly the skills of detection and strategy, of infiltration and manipulation, were skills she needed time and experience in. She had survived being a fighter on the street for two years, he had even used her as an operative on occasion.

"How about I review both you and Stephanie on the mats? Against me, not each other," he clarified when Cass glowered at him. "Tim and Cass can handle patrol. Jason and I will be in reserve. Jason needs to work on his belt anyway."

"Really?" Tim asked. It was rare that Bruce allowed him to patrol on his own, which would happen with just two of them out there. The events of a year ago, when a crazed Jason had stalked Tim, had left their mark.

"Yes," Bruce promised. Immediately Tim lit up, his shoulders straightening, the tension dying away from him, though not the others. A rather striking reminder that holding him back, could make Tim lack confidence and self-esteem.

**Jason**

Tim had tried to keep the two girls silent, wanting time to evaluate the threat before Bruce and Dick learned. They had promised not to tell those two, then told Jason. Tim was either rattled enough by the death threat to fail to remember Jason could be the protective older brother too, or had intentionally allowed the girls to tell him for some murky reason of his own. Frankly, Jason wanted it to be the latter, because it meant Tim did not feel the family would push him out over the death threat.

Bruce and Dick would have to be told of the death threat, but Jason needed to know Damian's capabilities, before he threw that spark onto the kindling. Once one or both learned, things would not be easy to manage. Bruce would probably restrict Damian's movements and refuse to see his abilities.

Of course, Tim was always three moves ahead of most of them, as evidenced by the afternoon's test. Tim had roped Stephanie into it, making sure they were overheard and then sitting back to watch the results. The lock and the shock trap were not surprising, but Tim's careful manipulation of Damian once again reminded Jason that no matter how much Tim doubted himself, he had successfully manipulated Bruce himself.

"It's a good thing baby bird is rather oblivious to his own power," Jason muttered, as he unscrewed his first container on his belt at his work station. He had a perfect view of the training mat through the computer at his station, while a second screen watched Robin and Batgirl chasing each other through some rather quiet streets. "The little runt would make the most dangerous supervillain ever."

"What are you mumbling about?" Tim asked, over the com.

"You," Jason taunted. "Just thinking how dangerous you can be."

On the mat, Stephanie was making a good show of herself. Jason was proud of her improvement. After roping Dick into giving her a few lessons, she had bloomed. She had the right build and personality for Nightwing's flamboyant fighting style. Controlled chaos. Give your opponent a show. Plus, associating Stephanie with Dick, the golden child, the one whose story was nearest to Bruce's own, could not hurt. Jason grinned. Tim had managed to rub off on him a bit. Here he was, working to trick Batman into bonding with Spoiler.

Bruce had expected to be met with the bluntness of Jason, or the deadly finesse of Cass. He had not expected her to manage one of Dick's playful tricks, literally climbing the opponent and leaping off behind them.

"Well done," Bruce ended her exhibition. "I see Jason has taken his duties seriously."

"I think he's having fun trying to surprise you," Stephanie panted, easily catching the sports drink Bruce tossed to her. Little chatterbox. There was no need to state the obvious.

"Tt. If that's what Todd can teach, he's even more useless than I thought."

Ah, yes. The little demon. Briefly, Jason considered allowing Damian to think he was getting under his skin, to try to draw attention away from Tim. Unfortunately, Damian was intelligent enough to see through the plot. It would probably enforce the idea that the brat was dangerously close to Tim's weaknesses.

Bruce had already locked Tim's file from Damian, as well protected as he could. No one outside the manor knew the exact circumstances in which Tim had ended up as a full-time resident of Wayne Manor. Jason's own struggles were public knowledge, as well as Cass's speech and literacy disabilities. These held little bite. If Damian got hold of the information that Tim had allowed his parents to hit him, Jason knew it would be disastrous.

Jason gave up even pretending to tinker on his belt, since the little brat was on the mat now, sturdy on his feet. He had good form. Damian went on the offensive. He clearly acknowledged Bruce was bigger and stronger, and he had no chance of taking his father down. It was possible he wanted to wind Bruce, to impress him.

Except, Bruce had been trained by Ra's himself. There was no move that an eleven-year-old assassin could know that Bruce had not mastered for years. Oh, Damian was powerful for his age, agile, even subtle enough that Jason missed a few cues. He even had the wit to use his smaller stature to attempt to trip his father. For a quarter of an hour, Bruce allowed him to show his training off.

Then Bruce went on a basic offensive, testing Damian's defensive abilities. These were much rawer. He had basic blocking and dodging down, but even Jason's larger stature could turn a good defense into an offense. Tim was the best at using defense as offense.

Ah, Stephanie was watching closely too. Good. She could learn from this.

Five times Bruce defeated Damian with ease.

"Enough," Bruce declared. "We are finished with this for tonight. Damian, you may use the showers first. Stephanie, I want to see you working through Jason's Tai Chi exercises for thirty minutes. Make them as fast as you can."

That was a bit unexpected. How did Bruce know about the exercises Jason had assigned the blond? Oh, right. Stupid question. He's Batman.

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	7. Chapter Seven

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Seven**

**Bruce**

What had alarmed Jason, had been somewhat eased by the demonstration. The watchfulness was not gone, but it was clear he had seen that as skilled as Damian was, he was still just a boy who did not have the strength to fully use those skills. Having been trained in the offensive style of the League of Assassins, Damian had their same weaknesses. The preteen would easily hold his own against a simple thug or five.

Against one of Bruce's other children, he had no advantage. At best, he could possibly take Stephanie down, but after tonight's demonstration Bruce was satisfied that the structured education under Jason was giving her finesse in her fighting.

"I see you two were hard at work protecting the city," he addressed Robin and Batgirl. They both beamed at him as they shook their heads like dogs, sending rain water everywhere. "I trust the storm was keeping the riffraff in their beds."

They nodded.

"Ok. Go get yourselves dried and to bed," Bruce ordered. "Damian, go to bed. I will talk to you tomorrow."

"I think I'm going to head up, too," Jason yawned.

"Sounds like a good idea," Stephanie agreed.

"Wait a moment, Stephanie," Bruce said, opening one of the cabinets and taking out the finished gauntlets that Alfred and Tim had completed that morning. "Here is the first part of your improved costume. We're going to be adding some extra armor as well as storage, but I wanted these done first, so you can begin learning how to fight with them."

Her mouth dropped open. "Really?"

"Yes."

He showed her how to put them on, bitterly reminded that he had failed her. Yet, when she was wearing them she beamed up at him, face full of trust and satisfaction. He rested his hand on her shoulder. As a child, Dick had easily conditioned Bruce to accept and give physical affection. Jason's death had diminished that, but after his return, and the debacle of Tim's family, Bruce had forced himself to give them more touches, hugs, affection.

It had been needed on Jason's bad days. It had been needed to reinforce his promises to Tim that the boy was welcome. Even Cass had grown more content the more affection she received. Naturally, Dick had gloated over his superior understanding.

"Thanks, Bruce. For everything," Stephanie threw her arms around him.

He only hesitated a moment, before returning the embrace. Then they headed upstairs together. Mentor and student. Father and daughter. Stephanie was his now. Arthur had no more claim.

"Pillow nest in Tim's room!" Jason hollered as he almost knocked them both down while racing a pile of pillows down the hall from his room to Tim's. A series of pillows came flying out of Cass's room into Tim's, nearly hitting Bruce in the face.

Stephanie grabbed Bruce's arm, used it to hoist herself up, and kissed his cheek.

"'Night, Bruce. Hey! Those are my pillows!"

Dick would want pictures. Fortunately, Bruce knew how to get into Tim's surveillance. He knew better than to join them tonight, when Lucius had insisted on an 8 am board meeting. It was unlikely any of them would sleep for hours.

Behind him, he heard a door open. When he glanced that way, he saw a pair of confused blue eyes watching as Cass shot across the hallway into her brother's room, with most of her blankets piled high. There was a thud, and laughter rang out from the four of them. Then Damian saw Bruce looking at him, and quickly shut his door.

A small pang of regret ran through Bruce. They had not invited Damian into their sleepover. The father could not fault the others, as his preteen son had made no effort to belong. Still, he wished the boy could settle into the manor, and have pillow parties and prank wars with his siblings.

The wish lasted until the next day.

The next morning, right before his board meeting, Bruce's infiltration of Tim's room surveillance revealed the cause of the previous evening's tension, and likely the very reason Jason had thrown a pillow party. Damian had left Tim a death threat. Bruce's throat wanted to close, as his mind warred between fury for Tim, and dread for Damian.

He has seen the confusion on his youngest son's face, while he watched the others having their fun. It warred with the rage displayed when he stabbed the dagger into Tim's bedroom wall. Such a threat could not be taken lightly from someone raised in the League of Assassin's. Yet, that moment of vulnerability had taken Bruce's heart. In the vicious little child, he had seen a moment of brokenness, that matched with the edges of the rest of the Family.

How was he to save Damian and protect Tim?

**Tim**

As far as Tim knew, Dick was unaware of the death threat. Bruce was aware. He had pulled Tim aside the next morning, to gravely make sure Tim understood the significance of the knife. While Tim already knew, he was grateful for this sign of Bruce's continued affection. Even in the conflict that having a blood child must cause, Bruce still wanted Tim.

It made Robin feel a bit guilty about manipulating Damian into a rage. He had not expected the death threat, he merely wanted to test Damian's skills, like they all did. After a week of his nasty barbs, it had felt good to show that he was smart enough to outthink Damian. He just should have shown it in a less taunting way.

Damian brought fear to Tim, not because of the death threat, but because he had a right to Bruce that Tim would never have. It hurt more than he had expected. After all, being the third Robin meant he knew he would give his cape to a newcomer someday. Probably Damian, if he could be freed from the indoctrination of the League.

"This has been a stormy spring," Dick noted, as he stared out the window into the nighttime storm. No one offered a reply. The ferocity of the storm had kept them off patrol.

Bruce and Stephanie were reviewing the final touches of her new costume. Jason and Cass were playing checkers. Even Damian was there, seated in a regal armchair with his tablet in hand. Directly in his line of sight, Tim was also on his tablet, reviewing his current cases.

Both Tim and Damian's tablets were facing each other. No doubt Damian was recording Tim, in the same manner the older boy was recording him.

"So, Timmy, your birthday is coming up in two weeks. What shall we do?" Dick asked.

"I'm going to get my license as soon as I can. I'm also going to review my schooling. I might try to graduate in winter instead of spring," Tim answered. "Bruce and I have talked about letting me intern in various departments of Wayne Enterprises, for a few months after I graduate. I know a lot already, since I get to hang out in Bruce's office or R&D every week."

"All excellent plans, but I was actually referring to how we are going to celebrate our baby bird's sixteenth birthday."

This was said loud enough to attract the attention of the rest of the family.

"Right. We are going to have a grand birthday bash this year!" Jason hollered, dramatically throwing his hands up and scattering the checkerboard. A look at Cass's smug face promised he had intentionally used exuberance to end the game, before he was forced to cede victory.

"Would you want to go to an amusement park?" Dick offered.

"Or we could go out of town."

"I'll bet it would be fun to go out on Bruce's yacht now that it's warm enough."

Quickly Jason, Stephanie, and Dick interrupted each other as they poured out ideas. Tim glanced at Bruce with a question. His mentor was looking back with that strange fond smirk that meant he was enjoying the noise. A nod from Bruce promised that they could make plans for Tim's birthday.

Tim was bewildered by the notion, and glanced around the room for advice on what he was expected to do. Cass pointed out that the yacht was Jason's favorite thing to do, not Tim's. Of course, Stephanie interjected that Tim did not have a favorite thing to do. Letting his siblings argue over his favorites and not favorites, Tim glanced across the room.

Damian's tablet had tilted downward, no longer watching Tim. He was eyeing the other four with mingled disfavor and curiosity.

"Tim gets to choose," Cass said, covering Jason and Stephanie's mouths. Put on the spot by the sudden beaming attention, Tim stammered a few unintelligible words.

"Don't worry, little bird," Dick said. "You don't have to choose now."

"We didn't do anything extra special for your birthday," Tim pointed out.

"I think, Bruce allowing Dick to invite half the heroes of the world to a party, in the manor no less, was pretty special," Jason taunted.

"Could we do something simple, like just have a night off and watch a movie as a family?" Tim asked softly.

"If that is what you want, I am sure the Birds of Prey will agree to patrol that evening," Bruce agreed.

**Dick**

Dick Grayson was perfectly aware that Bruce and Tim did not think him subtle. He was loud and flashy, was as ready to smile and laugh as he was to fight, and would, on occasion, force family members into unwanted bonding times. To the serious-minded Bat and Robin, this was a weakness. More than once, Dick surprised them with a sudden, strategic plan after talking about the most ridiculous things.

It had taken him an hour to see that something had happened between Damian and Tim.

"So, do you have footage of what has caused the tension?" He asked Bruce the morning after the discussion about Tim's birthday.

"I sent it to your tablet."

It amused Dick to watch Tim intentionally bait Damian into breaking into the teen's room. They had all walked on egg shells around the boy for the first week, waiting to see if Damian's arrogance would dry up, and how Bruce would respond to this new family member. With nothing major happening in that first week, they were moving on to actual tests of his skills.

The knife ended the amusement.

"This explains Jason's nightly pillow party in Tim's room," Dick commented.

"Yes. I've told Damian that death threats were not allowed, but he seemed to take it as a rebuke for making the threat, instead of just getting the job done," Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. "The simple answer should have been to give Damian back to Talia."

"It's not?" Dick was surprised. He had expected to find himself asked to help track down the wayward mother.

"No, it's not. You probably have a few arguments planned against the idea, anyway," Bruce pointed out smugly. Dick shrugged. "I can't do that to Damian. I've tried to make sure the rest of you have a safe place here, despite what some of your parents were. I can't send Damian away without being one of those parents."

Bruce's fists tightened around the arms of his chair. Dick sat cross legged on his rolling stool. They both glanced at the video surveillance of Damian training his young, strong body.

"Is he a threat to Tim?"

"Head to head, in a fair fight, he would not stand a chance," Bruce replied. "Damian's intelligent and cunning. He lacks subtlety and concealment, but he uses words very well. He has already seen how fragile Tim's confidence is."

"What has Tim done?"

"He's keeping Damian under surveillance. After the threat, he tricked the girls into believing he was afraid to tell me or you, so they went to Jason. Jason went into protective mode, and pretty much told me to test Damian's skills so we knew what threat he was. Tim explained that he wanted Jason to be the one to want the exhibition."

"Damian doesn't see Jason as that much of a threat," Dick agreed. "Jason can poke and prod at Damian, without Damian realizing his irritating bluntness is helping us learn his weaknesses."

Bruce nodded. "I don't know what to do, but let this play out for now. Damian has realized that Tim has been observing him, and is forced to slow down his own surveillance. I will repeat my warnings not to harm Tim."

**Cass**

"I think Damian is jealous of us," Stephanie said bluntly, as she climbed onto the cave ledge, where Cass had situated herself, with a good view of the boys in the cave below. "He watches us with a confused look, and sometimes, he wants to join us."

A proud smile bloomed on Cass's face.

"Good job," She told her friend. "You read that well."

"Well I've never been clumsy about who people were," Stephanie pointed out. "I don't hear people's intentions from their bodies like you do, but I can empathize. There's not much too it. You just have to listen."

"And watch," Cass said.

Both their eyes dropped to where Tim was stretching. Damian was on the other side of the cave, also stretching in preparation to complete Dick's newest arrangement of the obstacle course. The boys were watching each other, learning from each move, each word, each unguarded moment. Tim was far more guarded than Damian. While the younger boy openly displayed his disfavor and dislike of the teen, Tim concealed his feelings with a serious expression. When Tim stopped his stretches, Damian ran for the course, smugly working his way swiftly and strongly through it.

Tim's body displayed satisfaction. He had meant to goad Damian into going first. Naturally, Damian would show off, expecting them all to be awed by how strong, how quick his eleven-year-old body could be. Dick was playing on the trapeze ropes, Jason was tinkering with his gauntlets, and Bruce was watching some video surveillance of the location they had learned was going to be robbed by the Winter Bike gang, but they were all aware of the rivalry happening.

It was impressive to see Damian swing among the bars, climb the ropes, even walk a tightrope. He was skilled. Both the ancient al Ghul blood and the elite Wayne blood had granted him every advantage of body and mind. He had the right of respect for his physical abilities.

When Tim went, he moved slower than normal, faking less agility, less strength, less grace than Cass knew he possessed. This was why Tim was so good at being Robin. He could make you think he was just a kid in a costume. Criminals went for the easier target, only to find out that it was a mere mirage.

How strange that two boys raised by parents who wanted them as tools would be so different. Damian had been told he was elite, that his very lineage gave him rights, and strictly formed into a small, deadly assassin. On the other hand, Tim had been told to be quiet, to be good, to be a mere puppet. One had learned to make noise, so his superiority was noticed, the other had learned to conceal himself, so he would be forgotten.

Damian openly displayed his triumph, sneering at Tim's time through the course. After patrol, when Damian had retired and only Cass was in the cave, she would watch Tim fly through the course with all his deadly grace. Damian would not see this, and believe Tim was weaker than he was.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**

**A day off means I'm posting a chapter early!**


	8. Chapter Eight

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Eight**

**Bruce**

Tim's sixteenth birthday came at the end of Damian's third week among them. It dawned gray, but by midmorning, the clouds had parted to allow streams of sunlight. Bruce had intentionally cut patrol short the evening before, to be sure they were all rested, and so that he could get up with his alarm before Dick roused them. He succeeded, but though he got to see Dick looked surprised, it was a matter of minutes.

Everyone, but Damian, had planned to be at the breakfast table with Tim, who was usually the earliest riser. The teenager had the happy ability to sleep anywhere. He cat-napped at odd times throughout the day, allowing him to keep a more regular schedule than the others in the family, who usually tried to sleep in instead. Jason and Dick had both learned the hard way that as easily as Tim slept, he was as easily woken.

Upon receiving the first 'happy birthday', Bruce's third son glanced in surprise at the calendar.

"I forgot what day it was!" He exclaimed, then beamed upon the pleasant breakfast set before them. "Wow! Thanks Alfred!"

Damian had made it to the table, simply because the unusual migration to share the breakfast meal had demanded he find out what was going on. He grew very tense upon learning the cause, and would have spent the meal glaring at Tim, but for the fact that Stephanie asked him what a normal breakfast meal for the league was, prompting an immediate, lengthy speech about the benefits of his grandfather's meals. Fortunately for their peace of mind, Jason was not a morning person, so sarcastic wit did not offend the boy.

After breakfast, Bruce and Tim spent an hour together, reviewing Tim's plans to graduate early. It was a good time, since Stephanie and Damian had taken so much of the mentor's time lately. Even though both knew that Damian haunted the surrounding rooms, trying to hear what was going on, it was great to spend time with Tim. Only a brief discussion about his parents' upcoming plans, to return to the states for a small sabbatical, marred the hour.

The rest of the morning was spent as normal, training, researching, inventing. With lunch, however, Dick declared the rest of the afternoon as a Family Time. He dramatically ushered them into their favorite private family room, which he had spent the morning preparing for an afternoon of games, movies, and snacks.

**Damian**

Father's hand was on Drake's shoulder. Heat crawled up Damian's neck. The gentle, possessive touch seemed to be Father's favorite way to indicate affection. Father had not yet given Damian that touch. Even Brown seemed to expect the caress when near Father.

"I get to be Yoshi!" Drake hollered as Todd held out a childish video game.

"Only today," Todd threatened. "Birthday boy gets to play win or lose; the rest rotate out by the two worst times. Who goes first?"

"I've got a number," Drake sang out.

"Pi!" Brown and Todd shouted together.

"42," Grayson suggested.

"7," Father interjected.

"Infinity," Cain offered.

All eyes turned to Damian, who blinked.

"What are you doing?" He demanded.

"Figuring out who gets to race Mario Kart first. You have to guess what number Tim is thinking. The closest three get to go first."

"Why would you want to play such a silly thing?"

"Playing video games hones your reflexes," Grayson beamed.

"Oh," Damian deflated. He decided to watch, to determine the truth of this statement, so he went to take a seat. All eyes followed him. "What?" He demanded.

"Aren't you going to take your guess?" Brown asked.

Damian blinked several times, before fully understanding that they expected him to play, too. Even Drake was waiting. Having been on the outside of the ridiculous pillow parties, of the series of pranks Todd and Brown had engaged in, even in listening to the comms as they called each other by strange, childish names rather than their set call signs, he had not expected to take part. A desire to try the game, and be the best at it, warred with the desire to despise them.

"Come on Damian! Guess. No one has figured Tim out yet," Todd said.

"16," Damian shot back.

"It was 4," Drake said, beaming at Todd and Brown, who were the closest. Father was the next closest, so these four took up the controllers.

"Good guess, Damian," Grayson commented as the colorful screen began to race by. "I never thought to pick his age."

"It was wrong," Damian pointed out stiffly.

"Not completely. He picked four because that's how old he was when he first met me."

While Brown, Todd, and Grayson would spill every part of their life, Drake rarely mentioned something beyond the current circumstances, and no one else had ever offered a morsel of information about Drake to Damian before. It seemed like it was supposed to be significant, from the way Cain beamed at Grayson. They were setting him a test. He needed to uncover the significance of that age.

Todd and Father lost the race, and had to hand over their controllers to Grayson and Damian. The next few hours, Damian spent learning that video games were not as easy as he believed.

**Jason**

Alfred had made a feast for Tim's birthday. It was a good thing Patrol was not happening. Jason half believed he had gained ten pounds from the meal, and would not fit in the Phoenix outfit. Sprawled out on the largest of the four couches in their family room, Jason enjoyed being full to the brim, lazily nibbling at a second piece of the magnificent chocolate cake.

Barbara had joined them for dinner, fully considered a member of the family, even if she was rarely there.

With much more respect for his body, Tim was one of the few not ready to drop into a food coma, so he and Barbara were buzzing over Bruce's gift of new camera equipment.

"It's great to be normal once in a while," Cass said happily, from her nest on Dick's feet on the next couch over. Damian was pacing by the window, while Bruce and Stephanie also enjoyed food comas. "Want to do this on my birthday too!"

"Mine's next," Jason taunted.

"Stephanie's is next," Bruce corrected. "Hers is the eleventh, yours is the sixteenth in August."

"After that is it Dick's?" Stephanie asked.

"No. Damian's," Tim interjected, having his camera in hand and taking a few test photos of Jason's mellow state.

"When is Damian's birthday?" Dick asked sleepily.

"September 25th," Tim answered, after pausing to see if Damian wanted to answer.

There was a little noise from where the boy had paused his pacing. He looked angry, but not completely enraged, a look of longing chasing clouds of anger, before the anger again drove off the desire. How strange that the little demon could share that desire for a birthday party. Talia had probably made his birthdays an event to mark when he was to start his next level of training, giving him 'gifts' that were to push him into his role as the assassin son of Batman.

If the little runt would stop his plans against Tim, Jason would want to make sure he got to know all the wonderful parts of a large, loud, sometimes crazy, but never indifferent family. It would be a good next chapter to the saga of the bat family, chasing after the crazy and the horrific, to save their family.

**Dick**

Carrying Cass up to her room because she had refused to get off him, Dick mused that it had been a good day. Far better than last year's birthday for Tim, when his own parents had given him a concussion and injured his arm. Jason must have had the same thought as he chased Tim into his bedroom with pillows. Stephanie was hanging onto Dick's arm, apparently having decided the two girls would have a sleep over.

Bruce and Damian were walking side by side, with matching serious looks.

"Good night Damian," Bruce said, as the boy turned towards his door. Blue eyes quickly looked at his father, naked hope in them. Bruce ruffled the boy's hair, before heading onto his room. As Dick tried to peel Cass off him, he saw the boy's hand reach up to touch his own hair.

That was all Dick Grayson needed to see. He was not going give up on Damian. Dick was going to fight the League's indoctrination, unwrap the arrogance Talia had built in her son, and make Damian into a true Wayne son, worthy of Robin's cape, when it was time for Tim to move on.

"It will be good for him to have someone in his corner," Cass said softly, as she finally let Dick set her down. "It might be the only way to win him away from the League."

"Just don't let him hurt Tim, if we're talking about Damian," Stephanie called from where she was creating a nest in Cass's sunny yellow bedding.

**Tim**

"It was my best birthday ever," Tim told Jason as his big brother collapsed across the foot of Tim's large bed, apparently ready to sleep like that. "No one ever gave me a whole day before."

"When I was four, my dad and step mom were in a good place. No crimes, no drugs. We were living in a real house. That year they threw me a real birthday party, with kids, and cake, and streamers, and balloons. I never forgot that day when everything fell apart," Jason said. "Mom, the step one and the only real one I've known, never let my birthday go unnoticed, even after Dad abandoned us. She would be high as a kite, but there was always a gift and a cake."

"She really loved you," Tim said, ignoring the memories of lonely birthdays where he did not receive a phone call or a card. Last birthday had been the first one, since he was four, that had been acknowledged by anyone on the correct day. Jason and Dick were still furious about the events of that day, so Tim never told them just how happy they had made him feel just by making plans on the actual day.

"Yeah," Jason said softly.

Tim laid awake a little longer, thinking of his parents' plans to return to the states in a few months. It would be the first time they came back, since surrendering him to Bruce. The thought was anxious. What if they came back and decided to fight the current arrangement? Bruce had prepared a legal battle for such an event, but it would bring unneeded stress on the family.

With Bruce finally giving Stephanie the attention and training she needed from him, and the presence of Damian, it would not be a good time for his parents to try to wrest back control of him.

Jason had fallen asleep now, but Tim lay awake for a little while longer.

He heard Damian pick his lock and peer in, but the boy did no more than that, believing Tim to be asleep. Thankful for Jason, despite the way the bigger man had claimed most of the lower part of the bed, forcing Tim to lay sideways, Tim heard his door shut with a sense of relief and fell asleep, dreaming of his family around him, playing games and smiling.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	9. Chapter Nine

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**I decided to post two chapters today!**

**Chapter Nine**

**Stephanie**

As Stephanie dressed in her completed new costume, she felt warmth bubbling up. Tonight, would be her first time back on the streets. Tonight, was the first time she would patrol under Batman's orders, with Batman himself. Since Dick and Jason were once more staying over, coming home to the manor more often than their private apartments, Bruce had decided to have Jason stay back in the cave since none of them wanted to leave Damian alone there.

Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl were all going solo tonight. Spoiler, in a new, darker suit with an eggplant colored bat on her chest, would partner with Batman. Bruce was letting her patrol with him. She had kept the full-face mask, but wore a domino under it so she could remove it if she wanted. Before emerging from the changing room, she paused to look at the vigilante in the mirror.

It did not look like the angry girl who had sought to hurt her father when he had neglected her. It did not even look like the desperate girl who wanted the affection and respect of a good man. Tonight, she looked like Spoiler, a bat daughter. Bruce had been a little annoyed that she decided to keep the hood, but when she final emerged, he smirked.

"That is just... perfect," Nightwing announced, and all eyes turned to her. She had the mask pulled up over her nose only, so her eyes were visible. With everyone, except a sullen Damian, looking appreciatively at the complete ensemble, she blushed hard enough for it to show on the small amount of skin visible on her forehead.

So far, she had yet to find a weapon that suited her, so she would be using only the bat-a-rangs and general weapons they all used. Neither Batman, Batgirl, or Phoenix used a standard weapon like Nightwing and Robin, but Stephanie had neither the blunt force power of Batman and Phoenix, nor the deadly finesse of Batgirl. She wanted to find a niche like the other two.

"Nice! Man, I wish I got to go on your first official Bat Patrol," Jason whined, but he grinned and held out a hand for a high five.

"If Father would allow me to go, you wouldn't be here either," Damian sulked.

"The answer is no, Damian. You've only been here a month. You are only eleven, and though you are a skilled fighter, there is more than fighting to it. Nor do I believe you understand what we are doing," Bruce stiffly repeated himself.

"You don't think I can't measure up to any of them?" Damian snarled. "I am your blood, I have more skill than Brown and Drake put together! I belong in your war."

"No, you don't. You are eleven years old and you don't want to go out there to save people. You want to go out there because you want to be the best. I have never let Robin go out before I felt he truly believed in our mission. You don't."

Stephanie cringed a little, but not even Dick could fault Bruce for saying it. Not even in the stern, cold tone used. Damian did not hear anything, but the tone.

"That's not fair, Father! I am willing to do whatever you want. Mother made sure I knew how to be the best," Damian said. "I could defeat Drake and Brown, and you are letting both go out on the streets."

Bruce sighed. "I will confine you to your room, Damian. I do not know why your Mother chose to leave you here, but while you are here, you will obey me."

Damian paled a little and backed away. Then he grew red, and he looked ready to fight at the least provocation. Stephanie wished she knew what to do or say to make him understand what she had learned so recently. This was not punishment. For one thing, not even Dick had been allowed out as Robin until he was thirteen. For another, Bruce would not want to put a child in a battle he did not understand. In a way, he was not just saying no because Damian could not be trusted, he was also saying no because it was not right that Damian had been raised to be a warrior.

"When you are old enough, when you understand and can meet all the requirements Tim had to meet, if you truly want to come out with me, I will allow it. Until then, you are not going out on patrol. I can ban you from the cave as well, so do not test me."

Damian's eyes snapped to Tim, who was the only one not openly watching the discussion. It was meant to appear as if Tim had no interest in the conversation, that he did not gloat over the fact that Damian, so insistent on being his rival, was getting a set down. That was not how the preteen took it. He sneered, hurt and fury on his face, because to him it looked like Tim was so confident that Damian would never replace him.

Selfishly, Stephanie regretted that her first patrol with Bruce would start out this way.

Nothing more was said however, and Batman called Spoiler to follow him. She quickly ran after him, as the other three on patrol shot out of the cave on their bikes. Eventually Stephanie would have her own vehicle too. Tonight, however, she rode with Bruce.

It was a little frightening, not knowing if Bruce was angry after the argument with Damian, so Stephanie just kept quiet, watching her mentor's actions carefully, hoping to learn more. It seemed to be the right choice, as the tension in Batman's profile faded after they were out of the cave. She desperately wanted to ask where they were going, what she would be doing, but she kept quiet.

"I'm sorry," Bruce said softly, after ten minutes of silence. "That has nothing to do with you. I know you want to talk, Steph. Dick was my first partner, remember?"

"I want to do this right, B," She said softly. "I don't know what you want me to be like?"

"I want you to be safe and healthy. I'm trying to learn my lesson, and not make all my children mad, because I can't let them be themselves. Yes, I may need you to be silent at times, but that isn't completely you. Talking is part of you."

She grinned. "Yeah. I could rattle away and not say a thing worth hearing."

A bitter memory accompanied those words, of her father dragging her out of his room snapping those same words. She had only been ten, maybe eleven, and had been wanting to show him her new gymnastics tricks. Bruce did not like rattling away either. She had to be careful, to make sure he understood how grateful she was that she was getting this chance. (He wanted her, even if she was not Spoiler!)

"Your talking has helped Batgirl immensely," Batman pointed out, shuttling the bat mobile into one of its hideouts. They were in the manufacturing district. "Spoiler, sometimes words don't have to have substance. Sometimes all they mean is trust. Tonight, is about getting you back on the streets, safer than before. This isn't about Batman tonight. This is about polishing Spoiler. So tonight, if you need to talk, talk."

A grin widened her mouth, but of course he could not see it.

"The kid isn't your fault," she said. "You didn't fail him. That was all Talia. I hope he gets un-assassined."

Batman stilled, and she wondered if she had crossed a line. Then he caught her shoulder and fondly pulled her under his shoulder.

"I'm not sure that's a real word, but I agree with the sentiment. Now, there's been some suspicious chatter in the Kane Mercantile building. Show me how you will investigate."

Stephanie beamed, glad she had not made him mad for saying it. Not only that, but he was teaching her on the job. Spoiler was a Bat. Stephanie belonged to the Waynes.

**Damian**

Father had not said the words aloud, but the threat was there. Mother must have left instructions on the best way to punish Damian when he failed. The eleven-year-old stalked up to the bedroom he was residing in, trying to work a plan out. Mother had promised he was worthy, that he was skilled enough to take his rightful place.

If he did not... Damian could not keep the dread out of his stomach. He had spent two whole weeks in a solitary room for his failure, when he became upset that Mother chose to send one of his favored instructors away. She had said he was weak for growing attached to the man. Those two weeks had shown him how weak he was. By the end of it, he had wanted to beg mother to speak to him, to touch him. There had been moments when he was afraid he was not real.

Out of all his strict training, that had been the worst punishment. He would have gladly taken thrice the beatings he received when he failed to pass the league initiation ritual, the first time. To be locked up alone, was worse. He wanted to know he was seen by people, wanted to be heard. He was terribly weak.

Father's threat weighed a good deal. He had seen father's scolding when one or another of the charity cases had failed to follow orders. Father had even benched Batgirl for two nights after she failed to report a small injury. Damian's failure to prove himself better than Drake was far worse than that.

Every time Mother had punished him by sending him away or secluding him, he had always come back and done it right the next time. Every time he had won Mother's respect and affection again. If Father punished him, when Damian had not even fully won his affection, he would fail to gain his respect.

If he could not win that, he would have failed Mother again, and this time, there might not be a way to win her affection back. Damian would rather go through starvation training, go through endurance training, go through any number of painful scenarios, than to fail Mother for good. Not even his blood rights would save him then. He would be disowned.

There could be no greater shame.

He knew he could beat Drake if he got him alone, but his fury had caused him to make a threat, and the others had not given him a chance to catch the teen alone. They all pitied him, because they knew he could not take them all on. Grandfather could, Mother could, Father could, but Damian could not see a way to take them all out. Father had trained them as if they were his blood.

Damian did not have to beat them all. He just had to beat Drake, who held the honored place. Perhaps even the other riff raff would respect him then, when he took his rightful place. They could serve him, and Father could still have his charity cases.

He planned for hours, but nothing perfect came to mind.

He grew antsy in the solitude. When it reached the point that his chest hurt, he had to get up and find Pennyworth or Todd. He could find a hidden place and watch them, knowing there was another person nearby, and that he was real. With his head held high in the knowledge that he was Father's blood son, he headed for the cave.

Todd was at his favored work station, building something while he kept track of Father's operatives out in the field. He was chatting with Oracle. Barbara Gordon made no secret of her disdain for Damian. She refused to answer him the few times he got into the communications network to watch how Father worked. As soon as she could, she locked him out.

Fortunately, their chatter about Grayson's slowly evolving plans to open a gymnastics center, meant Todd was distracted, and Damian could slip into Drake's more private work station, where he could sit without being seen. Just hearing the two voices was enough to ease the anxious knot in his chest. He was not alone. Best of all, they were talking more openly than they would if they knew he was there.

"It will be good for him," Oracle's robotic voice said. "He can't stand the idea of working at Wayne Enterprises. He can't be a cop in Gotham. This suits him perfectly. It lets him connect with his parents."

"Come on, we both know he'll end up teaching a bunch of airheaded girls who can't believe 'Richard Grayson Wayne' is so athletic," Todd groaned.

"Dick likes the attention. He puts no more stock in it than you... hold on, Robin, I'm looking," Oracle interrupted herself.

"What are you seeing, baby bird?" Todd asked.

"The center is dark," Drake's voice, in the lower Robin version, echoed from Todd's speaker. "I know Ives said they were holding a game night."

"You are right. They had one scheduled, but it was canceled this morning due to vandalism."

"I'm going to take a look, O. Most people like having the Center as a neutral safe place for the kids."

"Keep the com open, kid," Oracle replied.

"Anyway, O," Todd continued their previous conversation. "What about Wayne Enterprises? We both know neither Cass or I would suit."

"Jay, Dick wouldn't like it any more than you. Besides, Tim is showing interest."

Todd was suspiciously silent for a minute, not even his tools making noise.

"I don't want him to actually be a businessman. It feels like his parents win if he does," Todd brusquely informed Oracle, and the hidden preteen.

"We both know Tim was never against the idea of actually entering his parent's business - and yes the com is muted on our end, so he can't hear us- it was the idea that they were not giving him a choice in the matter."

Drake's parents had tried to make him be a businessman? Why would he fight his parents? How unworthy of him. How could Father believe Drake was better than Damian?

"How do we know they didn't beat the idea into his head, and it's some latent fear of their anger, that's making him invest time into Bruce's business?" Todd growled. Damian froze in place; not sure he had heard right. Drake was Robin. No plebian man or woman could actually beat him, unless he allowed it.

"What do you think he would have done if Jack Drake, instead of hitting him and denying him food, had said, 'hey son, do you want to learn about the business with me? I think you'll be a great person to run the business when I get too old.' Tim would have leapt at the chance to have that attention from his parents. Bruce went through the same thoughts you are when Tim first stopped by Wayne Enterprises in March, and fell into helping Bruce figure some paperwork out.

"Maybe Tim is doing it just because it gives him time with Bruce, but it's not a bad thing. If my dad had ever let me near his work, I would probably be wearing a badge rather than running the University library."

"Or a shroud," Todd said darkly.

"Let it go, Jay, or you might be the one taking away his choice."

Damian could not breathe for fear of being noticed. For the first time in his memory, his dreadful need to know there was another person nearby had paid off. He had learned just how pathetic Drake was. Of course, he would need to find the proof before using it as a weapon. Perhaps that was what part of Father's locked files on his computer were. A two-fold test.

Prove he can hack into the computer, and find the evidence he needed to manipulate Drake into a mistake.

Before Todd could answer, an alarm went off.

"That's the clinic! Leslie's in trouble!" Todd exclaimed.

**Tim**

Robin was closest when Leslie's alarms went off. Oracle, Nightwing, Batman, and Phoenix all told him to be careful. Batgirl was only a few minutes away, but it was Dr. Thompkins' clinic. No one demanded Robin wait.

The clinic was brilliantly lit up against the dark of the street. Most of the street lamps were broken, or missing completely. Tim made a note to get the city moving on that, again. He set up his camera in his mask to record. Not for the first time, the thrill that his evidence could be used in court, within reason, filled him. When the VPA act went into effect that winter, a second law was passed allowing evidence from the vigilantes to be used in court. Not everything could be used, because some of the evidence was gained in unlawful ways (tapping someone's phone without a warrant), but crimes caught in public places could be recorded and the video presented to the courts by Batman.

This was one such case.

The Clinic's windows were smashed, the main entry doors were hanging brokenly open. Robin carefully slipped around the patches of light from the windows, searching for the perpetrators. Inside the clinic, Dr. Thompkins' overnight nurses were comforting a frightened pair of street kids who had been present. Leslie, who lived above the clinic, was also there, dressed in sweats and a t-shirt as she examined the burly man who served as security for the clinic in the middle of the night.

The thieves or vandals were gone, so Robin entered cautiously, taking time to scan every broken window, smashed in door, and the trail of debris left behind.

"It's Robin!" One of the kids exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Ah, thank you, Robin. I'm afraid the brutes are already gone," Dr. Thompkins sighed. She gestured to the security cameras, which Robin had installed himself. "They shot that out, and they were in the computer room. Carl made a valiant attempt to stop them, but they pistol whipped him. I want him to go to the emergency room, once we know we are secure."

"I'll be alright, Doc," Carl said. "I've had worse."

Jason had recruited Carl off the streets. He turned out to be a Gulf War Veteran, who had not had the support he needed when he came home. The Waynes had anonymously paid for his rehab and then got him the job at the Clinic. He had been there for six months now, and had stopped three attempted robberies.

"None the less, you should get checked out. The Wayne Foundation will pay for the medical costs, you know," Leslie said. The Foundation paid for the whole clinic. Which reminded Tim that the current president of the Foundation, Tiffany Fox, was moving on into her chosen career in social services. Her college bound brother had no interest, and was going to college to be an engineer. Neither of her younger two sisters were ready for that responsibility.

Tim reviewed the room and frowned. This was suspiciously like the Youth Center, which he had checked out right before this.

"Is this an extortion ring?" He asked bluntly. Leslie cringed.

"I told them they couldn't get anything. Everyone knows Batman protects the clinic."

And the Youth Center, Robin thought. That was strange. For over a year, the Center and the Clinic had been relatively unbothered, except by the drug addicts who would do anything for their next fix. Batman had placed his mark on those buildings, and everyone in Crime Alley knew that meant do not touch, or you become Bat Enemy number one.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	10. Chapter Ten

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Ten**

**Tim**

The extortion attempt on the Clinic was disturbing to all of them.

Bruce had been upset that Dr. Thompkins had not informed him of the first attempt. While Batman had hovered over the Doctor who had been there the night of his parents' murder, Spoiler and Nightwing had gone hunting for the two masked men who had done the vandalism. Robin and Batgirl had catalogued evidence and prepared for the arrival of the police. Commissioner Gordon himself had shown up, aware the clinic was considered part of the Bat Network.

There was very little evidence. All the physical evidence left behind was useless, strands of common fibers impossible to trace, DNA from a few nameless people and a whole lot of others who the clinic had helped that day. The case stalled immediately.

Then half a week later, Drake Industries CEO Neal Prinz reported a scam he had been victim too, and Tim had to choose one case or the other. Since he knew Mr. Prinz, he decided to take that case, while Jason undertook the more brutal extortion case. Bruce naturally had a hand in both cases, but Leslie, Alfred, and Dick had all demanded he not take the lead on the extortion ring.

"Can I interrupt, Tim?" Bruce said about a week after the extortion attempt. Tim had taken refuge in the library nook, since Stephanie and Cass were playing rap in the bedroom area, and that did not help him think.

"Hey Bruce," Tim stretched and set his laptop aside. "What's up?"

Bruce climbed the ladder onto the small platform above the first-floor bookshelves. The platform had been built by Thomas Wayne for his wife and son to read in. Tim had felt bad about commandeering the location, but before he could even apologize the first time Bruce told him, Bruce had mentioned how nice it was to see it being utilized by someone who appreciated its purpose. Dick and Jason had used it as a fort, or a launching pad for acrobats. So, Tim's enjoyment of the peace of the library ended up bringing good memories back to Bruce.

"Dr. Thompkins has banned me from the premises, unless I'm bleeding out, and Jason has told me to leave him alone while he works, so I've been kicked off the case," Bruce sighed.

"I'm not hacking Jason's files for you," Tim declared, before the question could be asked. "He figured out my light switch shock. I'll pay!"

"I know you have more than that in your arsenal, and Jason never does the smelly or nasty pranks on you. You agree that I should stay away from this, from an attack on Leslie."

"Well, yes. She and the Clinic are safe now. Dick is doing a meandering search for a place for his gym in the area, so he's always nearby. Jason is figuring out who else had been extorted. You already overreacted. Let it go, please," Tim said. "Go back to the Kane Mercantile case. Stephanie is always in a great mood when you take the time to see how she's doing on that case."

Bruce laughed, a fondness for the blonde lighting his face. When Bruce gave way, he did it whole heartedly. Stephanie would eventually grow tired of his over protective hovering, but she was still enjoying the paternal affection. The older man nodded.

"There's something else I need to tell you," he said after a moment. Tim tensed, aware that Oracle was tracking his parents' whereabouts. "Your parents, chose to go to England, instead of coming back to the states. They want to get into Afghanistan, and there is a good chance of that, with one of the universities in the United Kingdom."

"That's really safe," Tim groaned.

"Do you want to redirect their movements?" Bruce asked cautiously.

"You know they won't bite on anything else, when they might get access to such a restricted area," Tim shook his head. "Thanks for letting me know."

Bruce wanted to say more, but Tim bent his head down, wanting the conversation to be over. Despite his frustration that his parents had found a taste for danger in their archeological hunts, the knot in his stomach unwound. They would not be coming home and making any challenges. Tim still belonged to Bruce, who wanted him.

Until Tim knew Bruce was well on his way to Wayne Enterprises, he did not let himself really think on it. Jason and Dick were in the City, Stephanie and Cass were probably still in their rooms, and Damian had been absent all morning. He was alone and could let himself mull over it in peace.

He felt the familiar pang of guilt that he was relieved that his parents were away, but had very little time to dwell on it. His laptop started chiming out an alert. Someone was trying to access his very private, very secure files on the Bat Network. Fury flooded Tim. Only Damian had any need to do that.

It was not right for Damian to find out the extent of what his parents had done to Tim. It was hard enough to deal with his arrogant belief that he had the right to kick Tim out of Bruce's life. Robin's eyes were dangerous as he climbed down and stalked towards the cave.

**Damian**

Father had set a hard task for Damian. Unlocking Drake's medical records was hard enough, but after three days of plugging away at it, Damian had accessed them. Unlike the previous two Robins, there were less of severe injuries, but a lot of small ones, like a bruise here or there, a black eye, or a minor sprain. In fact, the majority of Drake's little injuries that were recorded were suspicious. The last major injury was from a year ago, a concussion and a dislocated, sprained arm.

The timing on that one was especially suspicious, since it was just a day later that Drake was officially moved into Wayne Manor to have a 'normal' upbringing, while his parents traveled.

Fortunately, everyone's attention was on the extortion attempt on the clinic. He had ample time to work on hacking into Father's systems. Briefly he considered asking mother for assistance, but knew she would be angry with that. She had grilled him in hacking since he could read and type.

So, he continued at it, determined to show Father he could complete the challenges, to prove to Mother that he was worthy to be her son. It took him another day to finally break into the entire file. He had had to sneak into the Cave early in the morning, while Father was headed to a board meeting, Grayson and Todd had left for some mysterious purpose, Cain and Brown were somewhere on the estate grounds, and Drake had hidden away in the library.

At last the file laid open to him. He greedily read every little, damning word that confirmed his hypothesis. Both Father and Grayson's reports had some drivel in them about their 'guilt' at missing the signs. Drake's parents had not just abandoned him. They had also hit, deprived, and verbally assaulted him. Damian would never allow some plebian to touch him like that. Mother had had Damian hit in training and punishment, but only to teach him, and the days he missed meals were training him to control his body.

Drake was not just weak, he was a fool. With his training as Robin, his startling ability to manipulate people, he should never had been touched by the weak man and woman. Yet he had allowed them to harm him.

A gauntleted hand slammed down on the keyboard, shutting the file. Damian barely restrained a yelp, and spun around to meet the furious eyes of Timothy Drake. Drake was suited up from his video conference meeting with his meta friends, but had not put the mask on, so no white lenses blocked out the heat of the hate. With a shove, Damian escaped the chair and backed into the open cave floor.

"What are you doing?" Drake growled, his long cape as still as he was, hiding his limbs.

"Father locked those files to test me," Damian reminded him. "I just beat his test! Now, he knows I can hack a computer system better than you. Now, I know just how pathetic you are."

Had any but the son of Batman and the Demon's Daughter stood there, they would have flinched at the storm rising in Drake. Damian had never seen Drake truly angry before. It was startling to see a measure of Father's glare in the cold face of the weak Robin.

"All you know is that my so-called parents were selfish and cruel. How do you think I ended up here, in this cape? I didn't have parents any more than the rest of our siblings," Drake snorted. Damian opened his mouth to deny any relationship with the riffraff. Them, he could tolerate only as charity cases. Even Grandfather had charity work. The teenager did not let him get a word in.

"You don't get it, do you? You think because he gave the genetic material to spawn you, that you are somehow better than the rest of us? Dick has more claim on him than any of us! Even Stephanie has more claim than you do! He doesn't trust you anymore than he did me, when I first came to him. You have not proved yourself worthy of the Bat!"

"Shut up!" Damian screeched, bitterly unable to deny Father had not let him join in his work yet, nor did Father touch him as much as he did Drake or any of the others. Father did not trust his son. It was why there were tests. "He'll see I am better, I am stronger, I am smarter than all of you, when you lie defeated below me."

It was foolish to say this, at the same moment of attacking. Even Drake saw the attack coming a mile away, and moved swiftly out of the way. Damian spun around to meet Drake's counter attack, but the teenager had merely moved out of the boy's immediate reach. As Damian coiled for another attack, Robin held up his hand.

"Stop, Damian. Fighting isn't going to solve either of our issues. You can't beat me."

"I've studied you for weeks! I know exactly what you are capable of!"

Drake was silent for a moment, icy blue eyes fixed on Damian's darker, blue pair. He seemed to decide something and then stepped back into a defensive pose.

"Very well. It seems strength is the only language you will hear."

Damian launched into his first series of attacks as the older boy spoke. This time Drake met the blows, catching or deflecting them. The cape, which ought to have hampered him, concealed his smaller, telling movements, so that Damian could not be sure of how he was going to defend, until the last moment. At the end of the first set of attacks, Drake caught Damian's wrist in a vice like grip.

A moment of dread crept up the boy's spine. He had not seen this strength before. It was as if someone else stood in Drake's place. The sh-sh sound of metal on metal was Batman's Son's only warning before the bo staff, which Drake carried as Robin, shot out from under the cape. It took the full extent of Damian's agility to get out of the way, before it would have struck his solar plexus.

He flipped out of the way and landed in a crouch, unable to stop his surprise from showing in his body. There was no such surprise in his rival's eyes. Drake had known what he could do. He had concealed what he could do when Damian had watched him.

A sentence from the file, that had started this final showdown, struck Damian hard then. Todd had both praised, and regretted, Drake's ability to lie. No one knew what was on Robin's mind. He could be whatever you expected to see, only to surprise you the next moment.

Is that what Father saw? Is that why he loved Drake? Drake could be the son Father expected, could play every role required. Everyone always called Drake intelligent, often deferring to him when he spoke. Even Father always gave him his full attention, something he did not always give even Grayson, much less Damian.

Emotion, Mother had always said, should not be used to fuel fight. It might give you strength, but it would also dull your senses. Damian Al Ghul proved that to himself, the hard way, in the next thirty seconds.

He screamed and threw himself at Drake, going for the older boy's eyes. Drake did not even flinch, throwing his staff out horizontally between them, so that Damian ran into it and was thrown to the ground. The air left his traitorous lungs, and in the moment while they recovered, Drake knelt at his side, hands near the sensitive areas on Damian's neck.

Drake had beaten him.

Mother would be furious that he had not won Father's respect. Father would not see how strong Damian could be, not when he had Drake already perfect for the role of son. When he sent Damian back to Mother, she would disown him for failing to meet her goals. He would be the abandoned!

"Come on, kid," Drake said, backing up. "I know it's hard to find out you were wrong. Let's get something to drink."

Still stunned by his loss, Damian found Drake lifting him to his feet gently. He was guided by the same steel hands that had not allowed him to even touch the older boy, over to a table shoved into a well-lit corner. There were pieces of all of them there, from Father's forgotten watch, to one of Drake's mugs, to even Brown's book. Nothing of Damian was there. He did not belong.

"I am sorry for getting so angry. You should not have looked at those files. Bruce locked them because you would use them against me. I think you would, but I think you might understand also. Your Mother has done the same thing to you, hasn't she? She wants you to be something, and you want so much to fit that role, but some parts of you don't fit."

What? How could Drake know those small, hidden fears that he did not match Mother's expectations, that he would never have Mother's complete affection and respect?

"Damian, I don't know what she did to you, but it was wrong. Parents aren't supposed to harm their children if they don't meet their expectations. My parents did, because all they wanted was an Heir, a tool they could use. Is that what your Mother did? She made you Bruce's Heir to fulfill her goals. She didn't even send you here to get to know your father, but to force him to change his mind about adopting more kids."

The cold mask was gone. Drake was baring himself to his enemy, showing the parts of him damaged by his parents. Parts that matched with Damian's squashed away fractures. Damian had never felt so frightened, so little, so angry. Drake had no right to be anything like Damian!

Drake had no right to see into those nightmares.

When Drake turned away to the small fridge, to pull out two drinks, Damian slid his hand down to his boot, where he always had a knife. By the time Drake turned back, it was in his hand. Pity, and Damian's stunned inability to talk, had lulled Drake into lowering his watchfulness. He thought he was going to bond.

He slid onto the bench next to Damian, and offered the green drink. Damian recoiled, shocked that Drake had caught onto his preference for that one. Who was Drake? Who was this teenage boy who saw what no one, not Mother, not Father, not even Grandfather, had seen in Damian's most private thoughts? Did he know how to rid himself of the breathless nightmares?

Mother could not be wrong. If she was wrong, Damian's whole life was wrong.

"Damian, no!" Cain screamed, but she only distracted Drake from the blade before it slid into the slit between his chest armor and back armor. The angle was wrong because he turned towards the girl, and even before Cain was dragging Damian over the table, the boy knew he had not killed his rival. But he had surprised him. He had taken victory back.

Damian did not even try to fight Cain when she struck his throat just enough to drop him. It did not matter anymore. Damian had won.

**Dun, Dun, Dun**

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day.**


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Eleven**

**Cass**

Her father had called her the greatest weapon he ever made.

Bruce had called her brave, because she had refused to be a deadly weapon, once she understood what it truly meant.

Only in matters of speech, had Cassandra Cain ever felt out of control, until this moment. Even though she had seen Damian's jealousy and anger against Tim, the fear of the death threat had dulled over the weeks, as they had glimpsed the repressed desires for family in the younger boy. Damian had kept out of the way as they sought the clinic's attackers. They had all eased their watchfulness. He was eleven! He should not have been so single-minded.

"Sorry, Cass..." Tim murmured, as she examined the wound. Damian had not had time to pull the knife out, so there was little blood to be seen. "Shouldn't have fought-agh! -sorry. I was angry... he shouldn't have..."

"Quiet, little brother," she said, easing him into her arms. Blood loss had not hit him yet, and Alfred would be here soon. She had never seen their caretaker take longer than sixty seconds to arrive, after someone sent an emergency alert to him.

"Master Timothy! What has happened here?"

"They fought. Tim won, but tried to talk him down. Damian stabbed him."

Words were so important. She could not lose them now.

"Stephanie, lock Damian up," Cass said, when she saw her sister had followed Alfred down. "Search for more weapons."

Alfred was examining Tim's wound the best he could, but they would need to move him into the med bay. She did not think they would need Leslie. Tim was still mostly alert, twitching with guilt, as he made aborted attempts to apologize. With a sigh, Cass pressed her lips to her favorite brother's pale forehead.

"Stay, Tim," She whispered.

"Be 'k, Ca..." Tim was starting to slur.

Stephanie had taken off Damian's boots, socks and outer shirt before satisfied she had found everything. She hoisted him up, carried him to the cell that could hold Bane, and dumped him onto the bench. Cass watched this angrily, as she stroked Tim's forehead. Then Alfred came back with a stretcher, and they were moving Tim onto it. Cass's legs would not hold her weight for a second, as Alfred and Stephanie moved him towards the medical area.

She was terrified.

**Jason**

Stephanie had called Dick and Jason as they were walking through an empty store front. Somehow, they had let their guard down because Damian was a kid, one who was pretty messed up, and needed their help. With the threat to Leslie, they had put the threat to Tim in the back of their minds. Jason had been angry enough from the death threat.

Now, it was a hundred times worse.

If the brothers raced their bikes back to the manor as if they wore masks, they were not caught. A rage ate at Jason's mind. He tried to restrain it, tried to remember when he had last taken the booster medication that relieved the effects of the Lazarus Pit. He had enough self-control not to go looking for Damian first, hoping to find Tim awake, and healthy enough to reassure his brothers it was nothing dangerous.

"Alfred had to call Leslie," was Cass's unfortunate greeting. "The knife was barbed. They couldn't get it out without doing more damage."

Jason could see into the med bay, where Alfred, Leslie, and Stephanie were hard at work to minimize the damage. Tim's face was the only part of him visible. It was too pale. All self-control failed.

The pit roared into control.

"Jason, no!" Dick grabbed his bicep. A swift punch into the pretty boy's face, and Jason was free and heading for the cells, fire burning in his veins. It would have been poetic to kill Damian with the same knife, but Jason was not going to wait for that. There were three more knives on Stephanie's work bench, all with the Demon's head on them. At least the brat would die on his own knife.

The cell was the most secure one they had, and Jason had to stop and think how to open it. The Demon Brat was awake, staring foolishly out at his executioner.

"Jason, please stop. Think!" Stephanie's voice startled him. Stephanie did not belong to the madness of the pit. She was from something else. "Fight it! Don't destroy what Tim worked so hard for."

Tim. The burning Pit wavered between the fury on the brother's behalf, and the still hurt parts of Jason that could not believe Bruce had replaced him. If anyone should have had his place, it was Tim. The little brother who had not given up on Jason, even when Jason had tried to kill him. Tim, who had saved Bruce from killing, either himself or someone else.

"If you kill Damian, you will destroy everyone," Stephanie said. "Don't break our family up."

Fear, finally, flickered to life in the Demon's face. He was so stupid. Did he think he would not be punished for this?

"Jason, please," his sister's voice broke through the roar of his rage. The big brother stomped out the fire of the pit. The knife dropped from his suddenly paralyzed hand, clattering against the cave floor, barely a foot from the cell. He turned towards Stephanie, who stood in the open doorway between the med-bay and the main cave. Behind her, Dick was watching anxiously, holding a tissue to his bloodied nose.

Bile rose to Jason's throat.

**Bruce**

Stephanie had called, but Bruce had let it go to voicemail, until the family emergency alert locked his tablet. Without bothering to listen to her message, he called right back. Her voice shook when she explained what had happened.

He did not know what he said to the board, but no one stopped him as he shot out of the meeting. It felt like he did not take a breath all the way home, not until he was standing in the med bay, watching as Leslie finished stitching the bleeding vein in his son's stomach. Jason was on the floor in the back of the room, with Stephanie and Cass wrapped around him. Dick was nursing a bruised nose, but did not seem inclined to share how that had happened.

"He'll be okay," Leslie promised, as she closed the wound entirely. "We've given him a little blood, but I am not too worried."

In a moment, Bruce was at Tim's side, gently stroking the longish strands of sweaty hair from the pale face. He would not wake for some time, but Bruce did not leave his side as they moved him upstairs. The rest of his children were silent, tense, waiting to know what he was going to do. Batman was at a loss.

Every emotional part of him wanted to drag Damian back to his mother, to never see the vicious child again. He had already failed Tim once too many times. If he did not send the boy back to Talia, he might fail Tim again. There was fear in all their faces, fear that if they failed Tim this time, he might turn his back on them.

"You aren't going to send Damian back, are you?" Jason sneered bitterly, as the men stood in the door way of Tim's neat bedroom, watching Cass show Stephanie how to unset all Tim's little traps, so they would not stumble into one as they cared for him.

"If Damian goes back to the Assassins, there is no chance for him," Dick pointed out. Jason casts the oldest a vicious glare.

"If he doesn't go back, he might actually kill Tim."

"You don't know everything that happened! We can't just write him off, or he'll become one of our worst enemies. We need to keep him locked up for now, until we change his mindset, but we cannot send the kid back to his mother. Don't you see, Jason? Damian hates Tim so much because Tim has a place in the family, one Damian believed he would get. Damian wants the affection, the respect, and the pride of his father. Tim has won that all from Bruce, but Damian never saw Tim's struggle to gain it."

"I don't care! I don't care if it makes the brat into a villain. Tim is ours. Damian is the intruder. I will not let you both fail Tim again!"

"Enough. There will be no decisions made while we are filled with anger or regret. We will keep Damian locked up for now. In the meantime, we will be there for Tim. Jason, you will sit with Tim first. Dick, pull up the video feeds from the cave and Tim's room to create a time line for what set this off," Bruce ordered. "Stephanie, I want you to monitor Damian. So far, he hasn't said anything or tried to get out, but I want to know everything he does. Cass, please come with me. I want to know what you saw."

His children dispersed to their roles immediately. He led his younger daughter into his private study, where they sat down on the old futon that he had installed soon after Dick learnt of his role as Batman. All of them had slept there one time or another, waiting for him to get back from patrol, or just to be near him after nightmares. During the month and a half before Bruce allowed her on the streets again, Stephanie had been there every night, until they were all home and in bed.

"I saw them fighting when I went to the cave. Tim was very angry, but he easily won. When he won, he became... sad?" Cass hesitated. Words were still not always under her command. "He had that set to his shoulders, like he had solved something. Damian was terrified. Not of Tim... he was afraid he had lost much more than that fight."

She paused to let her mind work through the next movements, the way their bodies spoke to her. Bruce let her be, glancing at the video feed that let him see Jason softly talking to the sleeping Tim. Would Tim always be the sacrifice for their family? Bruce had tried to drive him away, in the beginning. Dick had resented him, at first, for resurrecting Robin. Jason had hunted him, while under the influence of the Lazarus Pit. Would Tim give up on them after another attack from a family member?

"Tim knew Damian," Cass suddenly spoke up again. "Like he could empathy?"

"Empathize," Bruce answered. Cass smiled briefly.

"Yes. He saw himself in Damian, and he wanted to make Damian understand it. Damian hated it, but he was so scared... He thought he was going to lose everything because he lost the fight. Tim told him they were alike, that both of their parents only wanted them as tools. I saw Damian understand, but it only made him more angry. He did not want Tim to know he was so scared... and then he turned dark, Bruce."

She shuddered and leaned against him, welcoming the strong, fatherly arm that wrapped around her shoulders.

"I yelled, Bruce. If I did not yell, Tim would have seen and been able to defend himself. I was scared. If I lost Tim... if we lost Tim, we might all fall apart."

There was that fear in Bruce as well. He had put his mosaic of a family together, all their broken, grieving pieces into a brilliant picture. It had come with a cost. All of them had lost so much, or never had a real family before. Their brilliance was precariously balanced against the fear of losing the family. When the family was smaller, they had shattered with the 'death' of a Robin.

If they had lost Tim, who had picked up their pieces and rebuilt them stronger, what would have happened? Would Bruce have again fallen into that dangerous darkness, where he flirted with his own death or with murder? Might Dick have ran away to the stronger safety net of his friends? Would Jason have succumbed to the Pit? Would Cass's speech have died away? Would Stephanie have been lost in the madness of their grief?

"He's ok, Cass. We will all be ok," Bruce promised, drawing her into a hug.

**Dick**

He understood Jason's fury. It had been the oldest bird's first thought as well. How dare the newcomer attack their brother?

Yet, Dick did not want to give up on Damian. He had seen those unguarded moments when Damian saw their family doing things together, and the boy's desire to have that. True, he only wanted it from Bruce, and would easily discard the others, but Dick was determined to win the boy. He wanted the new brother.

The memory of Damian's hand touching his own head, where his father had just affectionately ruffled the boy's hair, made Dick's heart ache. The eldest even understood the jealousy of Tim's position. Even the first Robin had never connected to Bruce in the way the third had. Certainly, Tim had had to work the hardest for it, but he had won Batman over, had won Bruce over, and now he was The Robin. How could the biological son not feel jealousy, when even those who knew they were welcomed and loved had an edge of that same longing?

On the video screen, he watched as Tim furiously crept up on Damian, slammed his hand on the keyboard, and darkly accused the boy. Had he not known what followed, it would have made Dick pleased to see the emotion. Tim usually shut down when he was angry, afraid of drawing dangerous attention.

The brief argument was vicious. Despite their youth, both boys knew exactly what words to speak to hurt the worst. Tim won that round, leading Damian to attack in chaotic emotion. Here Tim recoiled a little, as if he had not expected it to get physical. However, he quickly realized that Damian would not listen to words. While Damian continued to let his fury lead him, Robin's calm had settled on Tim's shoulders. There was no doubt that Tim would win.

Something changed in both boys when Tim pinned Damian, ready to knock him out if the boy continued. There was that moment in Tim's poise that showed something had clicked in his mind. Dick wished he could ask what he had discovered. Damian's change was frightening. It was as if the boy had lost his entire world.

Tim tried to reach out, tried to connect to Damian. His words made Dick's heart ache for the truth in them. If only Damian had seen the sincerity in Tim, had been able to accept it.

"Baby Bird, you are always going to be a step ahead of us," he murmured, making a copy of the recording to give to Bruce.

**Stephanie**

She felt so guilty, because she understood Damian.

Jason was staunchly against letting Damian stay, Dick was determined to save the child, Cass was dealing with the guilt of distracting Tim, and Stephanie could not read Bruce on this one. Once her initial anger and shock had faded, once she knew Tim was safe, she understood. She had spent nearly two years desperately trying to gain Bruce's attention. When she had met Robin and Batman, Bruce had just started to accept Tim. She had watched the Batman grown fonder, fatherlier of Tim. She had watched Cass be accepted, too. And it had eaten at her gut.

Of course, she had never wanted to kill them, but then she had not been raised as an Assassin. She had not even been raised as a criminal, for all her father's actions. Damian had been raised for eleven years as a scion of the Ghuls. How could he know that his father was serious about his rule of no killing, that even the children who were merely fostered were considered as much a family member as Damian himself expected to be?

The boy was on the floor of the cell, seated with his arms crossed over his knees as he stared out at the cave. Stephanie approached cautiously.

"What do you want?" He sneered.

"I don't understand why you did it. After the knife in the wall, Bruce told you that was not how things are here. He offered you the chance to get to know him and his family and become one of them," she pointed out. She drew up a chair next to the thick glass.

"It was a test. I've passed it," he lifted his young, proud face. "Once Father sorts everything out, you'll see. You will all be gone."

Her heart ached for him, and she reached a hand to the glass. "That's not how it is, Damian. Right now, Bruce is figuring out what happened, and trying to decide what he is going to do with you. You are the interloper here, not us."

"I am blood!"

"You were raised in the League of Assassins! Bruce fights them! He stops Ra's' plans. Bruce isn't an assassin, he's Batman. He saves people your family wants to kill."

"Mother said he's the most powerful man in America. He can make metas listen to him. He's stood up against Superman and won. Maybe they have different ways of going about it, but they are the same. Mother promised we would be a powerful Family when we are all together."

"Oh, Damian," She closed her eyes, and leaned her head against the glass. "I am so sorry."

"You won't have a place here," he gloated, mistaking her sorrow as being for herself.

She quickly left, wondering if it was possible to remove his indoctrination, wondering what would happen to him when Talia's lies became evident.

Bruce came down to her a few minutes later. She showed him the conversation, mutely watching his face for some sign of what he was thinking. He grew graver than ever, but suppressed it. Instead he pulled her out of her chair into his strong, gentle arms, a promise that he was not going back on his word. She was still his.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Twelve**

**Tim**

"- please come back, Tim."

Bruce sounded tired and sad. Robin struggled through the comfortable veil of sleep. It was hard. Batman needed him, however, so Tim forced his eyes open. He was laying in his bedroom, with Bruce seated next to him, the Batman's head bowed. With a great effort, Tim reached for his mentor's hand. His mouth was too dry to ask what was needed.

"Tim," Bruce exclaimed, taking the hand in both of his strong, gentle ones. His voice changed on that word, as if all he had needed was Tim's attention.

"Bru-," Tim tried to speak, but had to swallow around his dry throat. Bruce instantly helped him lift his head, gently as possible, since his stomach did not like the movement. Several sips of cool water restored his voice, and his memory. "Bruce, I'm so sorry. I thought if I could beat him he would respect me. I should not have fought."

"You did nothing wrong, Tim. You had every right to defend yourself, against the intrusion of your privacy, and the attack on your person. I would have expected him to wake to some respect of your abilities as well. I do not blame you at all," his father said, arm still under Tim's weak head. "I was concerned that you were not waking up. I know this has been a very hard few weeks, having Damian here."

"I'm sorry, Bruce," Robin began, trying to make himself more alert.

"That was not a reprimand, Tim. You clearly needed to rest."

"Yeah, I feel like I slept a week."

"It was actually two days."

"Two days! Ouch!" The attempt to rise reminded him of the hole in his stomach.

"Easy kiddo," Bruce said. "It will be another day or so before you should really begin to move."

The teenager let himself relax, staring up at the ceiling. For a moment, he enjoyed his muscles relaxing, his father's arm still holding him, listening to Bruce's easy breathing. The remnants of a few bad dreams disappeared completely. Bruce had promised, and Batman did not break his promises. No matter what happened, he belonged to Bruce's family.

"Is Damian ok? I don't think I hurt him much, but it was hard to see what Cass did," Tim asked, after he had let himself enjoy being a real, a loved son for a few seconds.

"She did nothing more than knock him out. Dick and Stephanie made sure he was not injured. Considering what you could have done, I am very impressed how few bruises were left on him," and a fond, proud smile warmed Tim's chest.

"Talia is just like my parents," Tim mused. "Obviously, they had different goals, and different ways of reaching their goals, but I don't think she ever treated him as a son. She seems to have raised him only to be a weapon against you. He was so scared when he realized he could not beat me."

When no answer was returned to this, Tim turned his head to see a heavily burdened Bruce staring down at him. It was nice to see how hard this was for Bruce. He could not give up on Damian, of course, but if there was a way to keep Tim safe, too, he would do it.

"It is going to take some time to sort this out," Bruce said, pausing to look on Tim with affection.

"I know," Tim yawned, "maybe I could live in Jason's apartment. Do you think he would like that? He doesn't stay there too much, so I could keep it in order. He can be messy..."

"Tim," Bruce began, but sleep was washing over the boy again.

It would be sad to leave the Manor, but at least he would not have to leave the family. Maybe in time, Damian would be ok with Tim, and he could come home again. Maybe Jason would live with Tim, too, so he did not have to be alone. Dick might too.

Bruce would always be visiting and... it would almost be the same as living in the manor...

**Bruce**

Once more, Bruce was struck with how great the failures towards his third Robin had been. The boy had been _happy_ to think that he would still be taken care of, if Bruce sent him away because of Damian. How had Tim grown up to be such a strong young man? Where had his empathy and strength come from, when for his first dozen years of life, he had been neglected and abused, forgotten by those who should have adored him?

To be honest, Bruce had considered opening the Penthouse, but making Damian live there, with Dick and Bruce taking turns living with him. Dick was right that if Bruce made Talia take him back, Damian would not have a chance to be rescued from the indoctrination of the League. Yet Jason was right that Bruce could not choose Damian over Tim. He had to find a way to choose them both.

"You aren't being sent away, Tim. No one has the right to send you away. This is your home. You will not be the sacrifice, not even to save Damian," Bruce promised the sleeping boy.

"If his so-called parents were in Gotham, I would be hunting them down, so I could punch their useless faces," Jason growled from the door. Cass stood with him, her face dark with fury that her favorite brother (something no one could even feel jealousy over) was ready to make the sacrifice again.

"Tim is ours," Cass said.

"Yes," Bruce agreed. He gently drew his arm from under Tim's head. "Stay with him. It is time I talked with Damian. Do not let him wake up alone."

"He'll be sick of me, before I leave him alone," Jason said. "Come on, silent one."

Leaving the healing Robin in the strong, protective hands of his burliest son and deadliest daughter, the patriarch of the Wayne and the Bat family headed for the cave. Alfred was in the study. There was a knowing look on his face, as the eldest member of the family paused in his dusting, to look at the child he had raised to manhood.

"I trust Master Timothy has woken with no ill effects," he said.

"He has, but he thinks he'll have to leave to give me time to 'fix' Damian. I hope one day he will not automatically believe or accept that he must be the one pushed out of the way."

"It is my prayer as well, Master Bruce," the butler said. "I am certain you will find a solution for us all. I will see that Master Jason and Miss Cass have some tea, while they sit with the dear child. I believe you will find Master Dick and Miss Stephanie in the cave. Master Richard has undertaken to show Miss Stephanie some more of his acrobatics while they monitor... Master Damian."

"Thank you, Alfred," Bruce answered, putting aside the usual curiosity as to how Alfred knew where everyone was. When it came to this Family, Alfred seemed to have a meta ability to know where each was, and how they were doing. Now was not the time to consider how his childhood guardian knew all this.

Despite being aware that it was an eleven-year-old child locked up, Bruce had not dared go near him, in case his fury at Tim's injuries would spark his anger. Dick and Stephanie had taken turns being in the cave, watching Damian. The little boy had demanded to see his father multiple times, when food was brought, or he was let out to use the restroom. Terrified for the health and life of the son Bruce had already failed before, he had left the younger boy's care to his eldest son, who had taken Damian's redemption to heart, and to his newest daughter, who understood the child's desperation to be accepted by the father.

With the relief that Tim had woken up, Bruce felt his mind clear.

"Like this," Dick was saying, up in the trapeze as he was showing off his easier somersaults. Stephanie was in the opposite trapeze, mimicking the twists and arcs of Dick's body. They both leapt to the floor when they saw Bruce.

"He woke up. He'll be fine. Jason and Cass are sitting with him, now," Bruce said when they turned with matching looks of anxious question. Despite the difference in coloring, with Dick's Romanian blood and Steph's Germanic heritage, they looked like siblings. Both faces melted into tearful relief, and Dick swept Stephanie forward to embrace Bruce.

"Are you going to talk to Damian now?" Dick asked, when they all stepped back.

"Yes," Bruce replied. Both faces changed again, glancing at each other. Bruce raised a brow, when they looked back at him. "I know," he said, "I know."

"It's not that we aren't upset about Tim," Dick said. "It's just, if you choose to send Damian away, you'll lose him for good."

"I know," Bruce repeated.

**Damian**

Two days had passed, and Father had yet to come see him. Grayson and Brown had made sure Damian's physical needs were met, but since both tried to talk to him, tried to tell him he was wrong, he would have preferred they left him alone. Mother had put him through harder training regimes than skipping a few meals. After Father did not come the first night, he wondered if the strays had kept Father away. He could not fathom how Batman could not defeat his own partners, but since Father had returned, Damian had only seen him walk by once.

This was not what he expected. Father should have walked in, finally proud of Damian for winning.

Seated on the floor, Damian waited. Perhaps this was the final stretch of the test. There had always been one more step in Mother's tests, after all. He closed his eyes often, trying to win the calm he had had in Mother's tests.

"Damian."

His eyes shot open. Father was finally here, standing in front of the cell, looking exhausted. Quickly, Damian scrambled to his feet. A small smile curved across his young face.

"May I ask why you have taken so long to come get me?" Damian enquired, as bravely as he dared when Father did not speak.

"I was afraid my anger would cause me to do something I shouldn't. I've seen children suffer from neglectful and cruel parents. If I had come to you after I had seen to Tim, I was afraid of becoming them."

Damian tilted his head, trying to work this out. He did not understand.

"I do not understand, Father. I've passed your tests, surely. I showed you I could break into your computer system, I tricked Drake into thinking he won, then turned his victory around, and I've waited in patience for you to see I will not break if captured."

"I had not set any of those as tests. The last thing I wanted, was for you to hurt Tim. I have told you this, Damian. Why did you not believe me?"

This was not right. It was surely a nightmare. Damian had had nightmares before. Mother told him it was part of the life of an Assassin. He knew how to wake from one.

This time, he did not wake.

"I don't understand," Damian said dully, waiting to hear the truth of the matter. "You hid that information from me. You told me I needed to be stronger than Drake."

"No, Damian," Father said, his fists clenching. "I told you to leave Tim alone. I told you that if you were to ever become Robin, you would need to be older, like the others were. I am not your Mother. There are no hidden meanings in my word. When I say that I am not part of the League of Assassins, I mean that. Your mother lied."

A fine tremble ran through the boy's limbs. Father was saying the same thing Drake had. If this was real, if this was not a nightmare, if this was the truth, then he finally understood the pity that all of Father's strays had shown him. They had known he was wrong, that he would fail. Even Drake had seen it, despite his fear of Damian's position.

He had lost every chance of having both Mother and Father. In fact, he had lost his chance to have either one. Batman would send him back to Mother. She would be furious. She would either punish him and start over, with less chance than before, or give up on him and send him away, for good this time.

"Damian, why didn't you believe me?"

"Why would I believe you? Mother said you would never say what you mean. Mother never meant what she said. You didn't tell me it was different here. I was never meant to succeed here," Damian gasped. "Mother sent me here to get rid of me. She has given up on me meeting the requirements to be successful."

Now there was pity in Father's eyes. The tall man placed a large hand against the glass of the cell. Damian turned away from him to hide, unable to conceal the shock, the anger, the terror racing through his limbs. He had failed Mother's expectations, and now had destroyed any chance of meeting Father's expectations.

"Damian, I don't know what to do. I cannot have you harming Tim. I cannot send him away, I've already failed him before," Batman said.

Damian's shoulders curled in on him, dreading to hear the words he knew were coming. What was he supposed to do? He did not know what to do, how to salvage this.

"I am concerned that if you were sent back to your Mother, you would never have a chance to escape the League," Batman continued. "You have harmed my family and half of them would have you sent away. Dick and Stephanie don't want to give up on you. Can you understand that what you did was wrong?"

"Yes, sir," Damian returned. "I failed to understand you."

"That is not what was wrong, Damian. What was wrong was that you fought Tim, and you tried to kill him."

"I understand that you did not actually want me to beat him. I do not understand why. Surely if I can prove the better, I should have his place."

Father now pressed both hands to the glass, gazing directly at Damian. With a churning stomach, Damian met the gaze. He was still of the Wayne and al Ghul blood. He had failed both, but that did not negate his heritage. Somehow, he would live up to those names from this moment on.

"You cannot take Tim's place. It is not yours to have. I have chosen to make him my son, which makes him your family as well."

No wonder Damian could not win. Drake had won long before Damian met his father. Mother and Grandfather both had favorites among their acolytes, men and women who would get away with things others did not. Not even Damian's status as blood gave him any right to that, not from either parent. All his advantages of blood, birth, and training meant nothing in the face of Father's choice to love and respect Damian's rival.

"When will I go back to Mother?" Damian asked. Perhaps he could escape. There might be other places to go, away from Mother's disappointment and his failures in his Father's home.

"You won't. I cannot send you back to her. She has tried to use you as a tool, a weapon. I cannot return you to that. You will never have Tim's place, but in time you could have a place of your own."

For the first time Damian was speechless. He glanced up at Father, wondering if he had heard right. How was that possible? Drake had the only place in the family that mattered, as Father's right hand. Surely even a lower place should not make hope rise in Damian. Mother had insisted he must always be the best, or he had no worth.

"If you give me your word to end the death threats, give me your word that you understand that you will not gain a place either as my son, or as Robin, through means of killing, harming, or driving any of the others away, I will not send you away at all. I don't want to lose you to your Mother's beliefs. I want to make you understand what I believe. I want you to have the others as your brothers and sisters. I want to have you as my son, not as Talia's son."

Father had said he did not say things he did not mean. That was not entirely true, since Damian had seen him pull on masks to fool the outside world. But here in the cave, in their home, he had never played a false role. If he had meant what he said to Damian about not challenging Drake, then he might mean what he said here. It was strange, but a weak hope rose in the boy.

"I give you my word. Please, don't send me away. I will learn whatever you want. I will be whatever you want," Damian swore.

**Here we begin breaking Damian. You are all going to hate Talia before long.**

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Jason**

"If he tries to kill Tim again, I will kill him, Bruce," Jason swore, glaring at the young boy behind Bruce. Dick and Stephanie were behind the boy, watchful of his every move, but far too sympathetic with the brat. "It is not right that Tim has to fight all of us to earn a place in the family."

"Along those lines, you should not have been welcomed back either, but none of us ever thought that," Dick pointed out.

"But when I woke up, I understood what I did was wrong. The kid only wants to stay. He feels no real remorse."

"That is true," Bruce spoke up. Damian flushed, but made no move to argue. "Nonetheless, he understands that there will be no third chance. More importantly, he understands now that we do not work the way the League of Assassins do."

"So, he gets to be one of us with no consequences?" Jason hissed

"No. He will be restricted to his room, with no access to the internet, and all of his weapons and more will be taken. That is where we are going now. His room will be under surveillance. One of us will always be home to know what he is doing, until we see him truly understand. This is not a decision I make lightly."

"And Tim? What will he think?"

"Considering he believes I will send him to live in your rarely used apartment, I have a feeling he will be far more understanding than you."

Jason had no argument for that. Tim would be surprised not to be sent away to make Damian happy. It had taken him a long time to understand he could not lose his place by making a mistake.

"Don't you see, Jason? Talia treated Damian similar to how Tim was treated by his parents," Dick said softly. "Like it or not, to send Damian away, would be to send him back into that."

The kid was tense, looking both angry at the words, but terrified that if he spoke he would lose said chance. It was too much like Tim, begging to be left in an abusive home so he would not lose Robin. Angrily Jason turned, and slapped the wall. After a moment, he turned back.

"I want my protest on record, but if the brat doesn't do anything, I will not go after him. If Tim so much as feels like the brat was chosen over him, then a new plan needs to be made," he snapped.

**Cass**

"I'm not betraying Tim, Cass," Stephanie pleaded in the stern face of her best friend.

"You want him to stay!"

"What is wrong Cass? You were the first one to want to save Damian."

"Not at Tim's cost!" Cass screamed. "I would rather Damian be our enemy than to lose Tim."

Stephanie looked sadly at her, then reached out. She laid hands on Cass's shaking shoulders. For a moment Cass shuddered, then fell forward into her sister's arms, sobbing. In that moment, everything was right, and everything was wrong. Tim was still hurt, but he was recovering. Damian was still there, but too frightened to do anything. Cass's family had nearly fallen apart, but it was still there.

"Tim would have seen it if I hadn't shouted," she said. "I lost my composure. The threat was supposed to be diminishing. I lost my composure and Tim paid the price."

"Any of us would have done the same," Stephanie said softly. "I don't trust Damian, but I know how desperate he feels. I watched Bruce welcome you, watched how he loved Tim, and despised me. There are still times, that I do not know if he really has finally accepted me. Damian has been taught he must be the best, and that he has every right to be the best, but here, he sees Bruce more open, more affectionate with Tim. He wants that. At eleven, waiting is interminable."

"You want him to have the same chance you begged for," Cass nodded. "I understand that. I am sorry I accused you of betraying Tim. Just, be careful. Damian's resentment is not gone."

Stephanie nodded, but did not change her mind. After all, each of them had hurts, resentments, fears that lingered even when they had gained the family. Stephanie had finally been given Bruce's affection, but there had to be dread he might change his mind. Tim had been told he had the same rights as the others, but still feared he would be the one pushed aside and forgotten. Even Cass, with all her training to be controlled, kept waiting for the unexpected blows to come, meant to train her to be ever vigilant, but failing to account for a human being's need for a safe place.

**Dick**

That first week was tense. They all waited for the shoe to drop, either with Damian making another attempt, for Tim to have a setback, or even for the anger to revitalize the pit in Jason. Alfred was stiffer and more formal, all them haunted the hallways at night with nightmares. Neither Damian or Tim left their rooms, one restricted to essentials, the other kept in bed by an overprotective family.

Something had to be done. As the eldest, Dick had to do something.

It was not hard to figure it out.

As Tim got back to his feet, and Damian found himself still in the manor, the younger boy was growing restless, uncertain what to expect. Bruce visited the younger boy daily, working out exactly what Damian understood and believed. Dick decided it was time to force Damian into brotherhood. If he had another connection with the family, it might be easier to accept they all belonged. As the oldest and the most approachable, it made perfect sense that Dick make friends. If his desire for another sibling to hug and care for, made him all the readier, it should not hurt anyone.

So, he disabled the lock on the youngest brother's door and opened it. Most of Damian's luggage, and anything possibly used as a weapon was removed. Well, a tablet could be used as a weapon, but it would not survive, and since that was Damian's sole form of distraction while under house arrest, the boy was not angry enough, nor confident enough, to use it so.

"What are you doing here?" Damian demanded, trying to pull his shoulders up into a confident state.

"It occurred to me that I might be able to help you figure some things out. I don't know if you noticed, but your dad is not the greatest person to talk things out with. He doesn't know how to simply listen, which everyone needs sometimes."

"Father is the best at everything," Damian returned, but it merely made Dick grin.

"You've never seen him go head to head with T-me on the trapeze," Dick stumbled, nearly mentioning the intense conversations between Tim and Bruce.

"I am aware Father prefers Drake, but he has said I may stay. Therefore, I must grow accustomed to being second. It is better than being sent away."

Something in the tone made Dick frown, though he was not sure how to answer this. Damian could not understand that there was no second or first in a family, but for now Dick thought trying to explain this could misfire. He decided to address the last sentence, thinking he read something in it.

"Did your mother send you away when you did not meet her expectations?"

The boy was startled, wincing slightly.

"Isn't that how you were punished?" He inquired.

"No. If my parents or Bruce punished me, it was with a swat or a time out, but they always made sure they knew I was loved in the meantime."

"You are lying. You were away from my father for nearly all of Todd's tenure as Robin. He sent you away."

"Ah, actually," Dick winced, "I left him. He tends to be overprotective, and I was trying to be independent when I first turned eighteen. We had an argument, so I left to make it on my own. We were both too proud to apologize, so it went on longer than it should have. Even if I did not apologize, he would have let me come back."

"Why would you choose to leave someone, who has respect and affection for you, if they let you stay?"

"Ah," Dick hesitated, recognizing the question in Damian as one that had puzzled Tim. "I wasn't afraid of losing his respect and affection. If I had called to him in need, during that time, I never doubted he would come. Sometimes families crack a little and need to rebuild, but Family doesn't send each other away."

"Father sent Brown away a lot."

"Bruce was trying to keep her out of the vigilante life. He was afraid she would end up like Jason. He was not treating her like Family. There are times when you don't do what is right with family, but there is very little that should permanently divide a family."

Damian considered this quietly for a minute.

"I have learned I was wrong, about what Father wanted. He said something the same, about being a Family. I have not asked him what he means by Family. Perhaps..." His voice trailed off, and he looked Dick up and down with a sharp, frightened gaze. Hurt pride tensed his shoulders. "Father said you would help anyone and everyone. Would you help me figure out what Father wants?"

"I want to help you figure out what Family means. Bruce wants you to belong to the family in the same way he, and I, and all the rest do. Not by blood, but by choice. I would be happy to help you figure that out."

**Damian**

By the second week of house arrest, Damian was extremely antsy. He was permitted to leave his room under supervision for two hours a day. Father and Grayson undertook to be that supervision, and Brown liked to tag along on the exercise excursions. He was aware the Drake was now up and about, if still somewhat restricted in activities. Todd and Cain viciously guarded Drake's door anytime Damian was permitted to leave his room.

Father made a point to visit him each evening, sometimes eating supper with him, sometimes just to talk, but Grayson popped in and out all day. Despite himself, Damian began to find these random visits enjoyable. Grayson always offered to answer questions, and Damian tried to have one or two to ask him, but even if Damian did not have questions, Grayson remained, chatting about little, everyday things that Damian had never thought about.

"Good Morning, Damian!" Grayson literally bounced through the door, after a couple weeks. "I have brought my photo album!"

Confused, Damian glanced up from his note pad, where he had made a list of Grayson's ideas about what Family was or was not. He was glad of the distraction because the list was strange to him. (Why were pranks a part of family, but real physical fights not? Why did it matter if Family ate dinner together or not?) The reason for the interruption however, was not something he wanted to do. Unfortunately, Grayson never listened to anyone who said they did not want to see pictures of his circus days.

It appeared Damian had no choice. He dared not say a word against any of them, except in careful questions about why. It was humiliating to be the lowest of Father's family, and terrifying how easily it could be taken away. Part of being Grayson's family appeared to include having to listen to him prattle away about his performing arts.

"This is Pop Hayley with his first sign ever. That kid there is my dad! Oh, this was Sappy the Clown's last performance before he retired... and this is my mom," Grayson's voice trailed away fondly. He looked thrilled to see these images of parents that were gone, parents he could not win back. There was a soft hurt in the blue eyes, but he looked as if they had never even threatened to send him away, no matter how much he messed up.

Maybe Father, and Grayson, and... even Drake, were right. Maybe Mother was wrong.

The thought was a blow to his chest. He could not breathe. Mother was not wrong, Mother was not wrong, Mother had to be right, or he would be up all night again to relearn the same lesson. Mother was not wrong...

"Breathe, little bat," Grayson had Damian in his arms. He could not remember how he got there, but he was too dizzy from lack of oxygen to even feel annoyed. "That's it. In... and Out... In... and Out."

"Do you want the oxygen, Master Richard?"

"Yes, though I think he's calming down now."

"What did you do that caused a panic attack?" That was Brown. What was she doing here?

"I don't know. I wanted to show him the circus album. That made you all smile one time or another. I was telling him about my parents' first show when he started hyperventilating."

"I could see that putting him to sleep, since you go off on so many rabbit trails, but -," she trailed off.

"When he is more relaxed, I will talk to him. Thanks for getting Alfred. Please tell Jason I'm going to have to reschedule. I don't want to leave him alone, in case it happens again."

"I think Jason forgot anyway. He took Tim and Cass into town because Tim threatened to post the Guitar Hero video to Facebook if he didn't."

Grayson moved sharply, as Damian lay with his eyes closed, listening as he controlled his breathing.

"No, Dick. We are going to talk about Tim in front of him, whether he likes it or not. If we don't, that would push Tim out of the way. If Damian is going to stay, he's going to have to accept Tim, too."

"Yeah, you're right, I just don't want to upset the little bat."

"A nickname? Have you gotten that far, and why don't you call him little d? You can be big D and he can be little d."

"That's perfect, Spoilsport."

"No problem, Big Wing."

She left, and Damian found Grayson moving him onto his bed, where he continued to hold him. Ashamed of his weakness, aching from the horrible realization that Mother was wrong and that meant... that meant... Grayson's arms grew tighter, chasing away those tendrils of fear. Damian could not fight, could not face this, could only curl up against Grayson's chest, trying to keep from panicking again.

Grayson did not let go.

Damian was shuddering, had surrendered to physical weakness, and Grayson did not let go. For the first time, family was not a word about blood ties. Damian had broken, had failed, and Grayson had let him, had comforted him. The boy had never felt safe in weakness before that moment.

"It's ok, little d. You have every right to be afraid. You don't understand everything that's happening. It's ok to be afraid of that. I will be right here to help you figure it out."

Damian had known he was special by right of birth, but this was a different kind of special. This was having someone strong, powerful, dangerous choose him. It was nice... no, it was good. It was good to have someone who would not punish when you were scared.

**Bruce**

"But, Timmy," Jason whined.

"No. I need my space. Sleep in Damian's room if you have to, but you are not staying in my room tonight, no matter how worried you are."

Tim did not often use that harsh tone. He reserved it for his most earnest moments. It was a good sign of healing, that he felt stable and safe enough to demand his room to himself. Jason continued to whine, but Tim caught sight of Bruce and left the overprotective brother to commiserate with Cass.

"Hey kiddo," Bruce said, reaching to ruffle the spiky gelled hair. Tim liked to play skater punk in public, as well as little genius. "How are you feeling?"

"I am nearly 100%. It was just a flesh wound."

"That nicked an artery," Bruce pointed out.

"I'm fine. I've got enough blood in me, I'm up and about, and it's just another scar. Anyway, I wanted to ask you about letting me go to Jason's apartment."

"You are not leaving the manor, Tim," Bruce replied. He thought they had this conversation, but upon careful review of his memories, he realized he had talked to every other child, except Tim, about the decision. "This is your home, and Damian does not have the right to push you out. I have him under house arrest, for now, and Dick and I are trying to work on him. I do not believe he will try to harm you or anyone else again. Are you... threatened by his continued residence?"

"No. I mean, as long as he stays out of my bedroom and the library nook, I have safe places. But, isn't it going to be hard to make him learn, if he hates me and I'm here?"

"If we send you away, that tells him he is right. Since he is wrong, he needs to learn this. If you do not feel safe, I can move him to the Penthouse."

Tim frowned. "But, Bruce, that wouldn't work. He would think he's being sent away. I really, really don't like him, but... it should be his home too."

"Then we will continue as is, until we find he is improving or another compromise. I promise you will never be sent away, Tim."

The slightly pale face blushed at that, and Bruce found himself receiving one of Tim's rare, spontaneous embraces. He was concerned that Tim was playing what he believed was his required role. As much as Bruce had learned to read behind the masks his third son so easily donned, Tim was known to be able to lie to him. A close eye would need to be kept on him.

"Hey Bruce," Steph entered at that moment, carrying a stack of red plastic cups. "Dick needs to see you, in Damian's room."

Bruce nodded, having received a tense text informing him of Damian's panic attack. He hesitated a moment, wondering what Stephanie was doing with plastic cups in an old, historical manor, where Alfred kept a stock of crystal clear glasses. Since Cass and Jason both brightened when she approached, he guessed they were teaching Cass a new game. Tim joined the small group, lowering himself just a little tenderly to the floor.

There was never a dull moment around his children.

In Damian's room, he found Dick holding a sleeping boy. Damian looked messed up, instead of his usual careful appearance, and his eyes were swollen as if he had fought tears for a while. Dick had bemoaned his inability to hug Damian, swearing a good hug would solve a lot of problems. It appeared that hug had finally happened, and that Damian had not let go.

"Hey Bruce," Dick said softly. "After he wakes up, I want to hold a family meeting. If everyone is ok with it, I think we need to let him out more. Obviously never alone, and never with Tim, but he needs some distractions. It finally clicked today that Talia had lied to him. I'm afraid the realization did not go well."

"I suspect she would have severely punished any hint that he believed, or even thought she might be wrong," Bruce said softly. Anger, that a child of his own blood had faced what some of his adopted children had, flooded him. He should have known about Damian. He should have made the boy's life different.

"Yeah," Dick agreed.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Stephanie**

Against all Jason's loud protests, which completely overwhelmed Cass's more placating suggestions, Damian was permitted to emerge from his room every afternoon under Dick's supervision. The first afternoon fell on Stephanie's birthday, which was celebrated in a quieter version of Tim's. Jason took Stephanie to the rehab center in the morning to visit with her mother. The afternoon was spent playing less competitive games.

This was also Damian's first family meal since being confined to his room.

And, it was the first face to face meeting between the youngest boys since the altercation. It took place quietly and rather stiffly.

With Dick watchfully at his side, Damian approached Tim, who watched him with blank eyes. Stephanie hated that look, because she had seen it most when he talked about his parents. It was his default mode when uncertain or afraid. Everyone was tense and ready to fight at the least provocation, but neither Damian nor Tim wanted that.

"Drake, Grayson has told me I should apologize, even though I don't feel completely regretful that I caused you harm. I was mistaken in my belief of what my father wanted me to do. I should not have attacked you."

It cost the proud child a good deal to say that terrible apology, and they all held their breath to see what Tim would say.

"I accept your apology," was the calm answer.

Damian looked confused, glancing nervously at Dick, who gave a strained smile.

"Is that all that happens?" He asked Dick in a low tone.

"It's a start. Tim is giving you a chance to be better. Many times, an apology can be a place to start over."

"Come and sit down, everyone! Alfred made chicken!" Stephanie called into the tense silence. She elbowed Jason out of the way so that she got to sit next to Tim. This was not the best move, since it placed Jason opposite Damian, but it was her birthday and Tim was her first best friend.

Damian sat quietly, although not quite meekly, next to Dick. Stephanie had hope she might be able to break the boy's walls too. Everyone had remarked how similar her personality was to Dick. Dick was great as a big brother, but there were somethings that called for a big sister, too.

After dinner, Damian was sent back to his room. This allowed a good deal more freedom of thought, voice, and sheer fun. It was a brilliant birthday. Tim was nearly recovered, Damian was learning, and Alfred had made the best. Birthday. Cake. Ever.

**Damian**

With the new level of freedom, Damian spent his mornings studying schoolwork, and the afternoons with Grayson. He was kept far from the cave, from his Father's life work. His chest ached when he thought about this, but he had to think every word and action through, to be sure he did not anger Father. Father always looked brighter in Grayson's presence, so it would make sense to take him as his model.

"What are you guys doing?" Soon after Todd's birthday, less than a week after Brown's, Dick invited Damian to go outside and get some fresh air. As they headed for a back door, they passed Father's study, where Brown leapt up from her seat, tossing the book of criminal law onto the ragged futon. "Can I come? I need a break from this."

"Bruce has you reading that now?" Grayson laughed. "I had to read it three times after botching several arrests. Working outside the law to find the bit the Law can use, can be frustrating. It's nice to have more freedom since the VPA passed. Come along, Spoilsport."

He slung an arm over her shoulder, and reached to rest a hand on Damian's shoulder, guiding them both outside into the vast side yard. As soon as they were free of the house, he let both go, and leapt away in three light handsprings. "Let's run!"

August was hardly the best month to run in, but Grayson and Brown took off in a race. Damian stalked after them. With longer legs, Grayson ran faster, but Brown gave up on the race, leaping onto his back when they looped around one of the paths. Grayson barely slowed as he raced, Brown's arms and legs wrapped around his torso.

It was a powerful display of his strength, but Grayson did not seem to revel in his clear superiority. When they reached Damian, he tumbled over, trying to get the girl to let go. It was a near thing, but Brown hung on tenaciously, moving through the tumble with him. Grayson failed to regain his feet and fell onto his butt, laughing his head off.

"You don't ever give up, Spoilsport," he laughed, falling backwards so that she cushioned him against the ground. Damian stood stiffly, watching.

"Of course not. The moment you tell me I can't do something, I set out to prove I can. Maybe I won't be the best, but I will do it." She unwrapped from around him and leapt to her feet. She began to stretch.

Grayson watched her with a knowing smirk. He leapt to his feet and began to warm up as well. Damian could tell the man was testing the girl. He wanted to see how she had improved in something.

From a nearby tree, Grayson broke off two similar sized branches, stripped them of twigs, and broke each in half. He tossed a pair to Brown, who caught them. Both began to swing them experimentally. This was Nightwing's signature, and he was teaching it to Brown. By his mere presence, Damian was going to learn as well.

"Ready?" Grayson asked, taking a stance.

"Spoilers," she replied, taking her own stance.

Damian watched as they both stood as still as statues. Five deep breaths, their eyes never leaving the other's face. Brown shifted a little, growing impatient, but refusing to give in to the tension and move first. After five more breaths, Grayson grinned. Then he moved.

Mother had taught Damian about every weapon in existence. He had briefly worked with eskrima sticks, but his knack had always been in blades. Not even the weapons master, who briefly touched on stave fighting, could move as both Grayson and Brown could. The boy watched in surprise as Brown parried and blocked with her sticks, catching onto the little moves Grayson made. He grudgingly had to admit she could learn. He had seen all their fighting styles, but had dismissed most of them, believing Drake to be his greatest threat.

Both Grayson and Brown were flamboyant, putting something extra in, as they battled.

And they talked.

"-could beat Jason at this- "

"-take Cass shopping- "

"-new Star Wars movie- "

"-my Padawan is growing up- "

It was extremely irritating to try and follow the conversation, which seemed to bounce from their fight, to their siblings, to what they wanted for supper. Mixed in with the chatter were fond taunts. After five minutes, Damian realized the chatter was as much a weapon as the sticks. They were trying to distract each other.

"Where's the popcorn when you need it?" Todd laughed behind Damian. The boy nearly leapt out of his skin, turning to find Todd, Cain, and Drake had come to watch as well. "She is going to be as irritating as Dick someday soon."

After another five minutes, now with the other three cheering both on, Grayson stopped playing. Within a few seconds, he had Brown's sticks in his hand and had tripped her. That should have ended the match, but when Dick reached down to help her up, she pulled hard on his arm, used the momentum to leap into the air, and snag one stick back.

"Well done, blondie!" Todd roared.

"Well done," Grayson echoed, snatching it back. "Who's next?'

"Yeah, right," Todd snorted. "Let's get Timmy's staff, first."

"But Drake always carries his bo," Damian spoke up. Surprise lit up Todd and Brown's faces, but Cain looked smug and Dick looked amused. Drake glanced at Damian with his blank face, and the boy feared his reminder of how he watched the other, was going to be a mark against him. He wanted to cringe, to show his discomfort, but anyone of them could see that weakness and use it against him.

"Well, Timmy, that always be prepared attitude means you get to challenge Dick," Todd announced, in a tone of voice that was both amused and meaningful.

"Ok." Drake said lightly, springing the collapsible staff from its secret pocket. He was given a few minutes to warm up. The others watched him closely for signs of weakness from the wound Damian had given him. There was a slight stiffness to his body, but it lessened as he warmed up.

Grayson took the few minutes breather to practice against the tree. Brown, having had a minor victory of sorts, climbed onto Todd's back and clung to him like she had Grayson earlier. It was presented as a prank, but Damian suddenly realized she was using it to hug them. Apparently, she was not completely confident in her place here.

"Ready, baby bird?" Dick said, swinging the sticks from side to side.

"Yes," Drake said, stepping forward. He let the bo lean on the ground, while Nightwing stepped into a serious stance. After seeing him play with Brown, and quickly end it, the fact that Grayson was taking this spar more seriously, startled Damian.

Drake never gave off an iota of impatience, standing implacable until the older brother moved. He blocked the first attack awkwardly, stepping away with a little grimace. It went like that for the first minute or two. Grayson was testing how ready Drake was to fight.

There was an air of concern on Grayson, as they moved a little closer and a little faster. Drake was hampered by his recovery.

Grayson decided this was not fun and went in a full strike, meaning to disarm Drake and end the match. Instead of dodging out of the way, Drake threw the staff out, catching the sticks. He was knocked back a step. Grayson stepped back.

"Are you sure about this, Tim?" He asked.

"Why doesn't anyone ever believe me when I say I am fine?" Drake muttered. "You know I go slower when getting back on my feet. Just give me another couple minutes to warm up."

They went back to the testing each other phase. Drake made a few offensive moves that Grayson easily avoided. Then they stepped back, rolling their shoulders, throwing their heads back. Grayson smirked and lunged.

Drake whirled out of the way, striking out at Grayson's leg. The acrobat was too fast however, and got out of the way.

"A little looser, Timmy?" He asked.

"Yes, it's feeling much easier to move," Drake said, dumbly, in the face of Grayson's taunting smirk.

Grayson lunged again, this time managing to get a touch on Drake's shoulder. Only Drake had accepted the blow, stepping forward so that he knocked his staff against Grayson's side. He winced a little, and backed up. Grayson sighed and went for the ending strike.

Drake's entire demeanor changed. As the older brother moved to trip him, he straightened, grabbed the arms swinging at him, and tugged. Dick was too skilled an acrobat to fall over, but he stumbled a few steps. Drake leapt over his bent body, grinning.

"I told you I was fine," he said. "I wasn't lying."

The others all laughed, tension bleeding out of them. It had all been a trick. Drake had made them believe he was tired and stiff.

As the older boy began to spar in earnest, Damian had another gut-wrenching moment of realization. He had no more skill than the others. At best, he was better than Brown. He had never believed he could take on the adult Todd and Grayson, and not even Mother would have insisted he could beat Cain. Yet, he had believed he was superior to Drake, failing to see it was a trick.

The real spar did not last as long as the training spar with Brown had. Drake was good, but Grayson was taller, stronger, and faster. Grayson had to work harder than before, but he did eventually knock the staff out of Drake's hands, and knock him down.

"Well, I think you passed, Timmy," Todd laughed.

"Good, because I need to get into the dock's. Cobblepot's men are nosing around there again. I think they're smuggling again," Drake said stretching easily.

"You still have to convince Bruce," Brown pointed out.

"He's in the window of his study," Drake retorted. "He saw."

Even Cain looked back to double check. Sure enough, Father could be seen in the window. Everyone but Damian waved, and Father smiled, giving them, or at least Drake, a thumb up.

"Well, now, I'm still fresh. Jason?"

"No thanks. I'm going to be crawling around the docks with Tim later. He'll easily fit in the small areas, but I could do without bruises to bang on shipping crates."

"Cass?"

She shook her head, grinning.

"Fine then," Grayson huffed. "How about you, Damian? You may have some offensive skills, but you don't know how to defend yourself or others well."

"Dick," Todd growled. Stung by the criticism, and afraid that even a training spar would anger Father, Damian stood still. He glanced nervously around. He wanted to try. Watching the spars had brought up his blood. Against Dick he would not be stung to anger, and really want to attack.

"It's a spar, Jason, not a battle. I want him to learn the skills he has can be used to help people, rather than kill them."

"Jay," Drake said softly, putting his hand on the tense arm of the biggest of them. Brown climbed off his back, watching Damian closely.

"Father... might not like it," Damian choked out.

"That can be on me," Dick retorted. He picked up the rather battered pairs of sticks and tossed one at Damian.

The others stood by, tense and ready to fight if need be, but Grayson looked relaxed.

"Have you used eskrima before?"

"Of course," Damian said, trying to keep his excitement out of his voice, trying to appear as if this was no big deal.

"Alright, block me," and Grayson was moving, swinging one of his sticks downward. Damian brought the two sticks up in time to catch it. Had Grayson's full strength been behind the swing, it was unlikely the weakly crossed staves would have done more than slow the blow. Grayson looked displeased. "Did they teach you anything about defending yourself?"

"Mother said attacking first was advantageous. Keep your opponent knocked off balance."

"What do you do when you face a stronger opponent?"

"You fight until you get an opening."

"Humph," Grayson grabbed one of the sticks. "Stephanie, come take a swing at me."

She laughed and came forward. Since Grayson was taller than her, she swung in from the side. Grayson's sticks came up with a loud clatter, catching the other in a much tighter, firmer cross than Damian's was. It would take more strength than she had to break that block.

The next ten minutes informed Damian how little he really knew of this branch of martial arts. Using Brown as his assistant, Grayson walked Damian through several types of blocks with the sticks, but Damian kept wanting to keep his sticks loose, to give himself an opportunity to attack.

"You aren't strong enough to do that, Damian," Grayson said. "You need to use the sticks to block only. If you can lock the stick..." He swung down on Brown, who caught the strike with a firm block, "You have other options open to you. Stephanie, for instance, has a free knee. She is not going to demonstrate what that would do. I believe we can all imagine. You, on the other hand, can use my height against me."

He dropped to his knees, and nodded at Brown, who swung down on him this time. Grayson caught the strike solid, then dropped further to the ground, sending Brown stumbling over him.

Leaping to his feet, Dick tossed the sad pair of sticks into Damian's hands. "Now, you try," and he swung down.

Damian saw his Father approaching, and dropped the sticks, desperate to show he was not challenging Grayson. He tensed, expecting Grayson's blow to strike. It did not. Grayson stopped it just above Damian's upraised hands.

"Oh, hey Bruce," Dick said. "I figured out why it's so easy to beat Ra's' ninjas. They aren't taught a good defense."

"I trust you know what you are doing," Father said. "Damian, pick the sticks up and make that block. I will not be angry if you are defending yourself. You have the right to be safe."

Even Todd nodded in agreement.

A little confused on how he would have the right to fight, if one of his superiors chose to knock him down, Damian picked the sticks up again.

"We never said you couldn't defend yourself, baby bat. What we said is you cannot attack us," Dick said softly. "If anyone tries to attack you outside of training, you have the right to fight and get away."

"How am I to learn, if I don't stay to finish the fight?"

"Living to fight another day will allow you to learn much more than fighting through each error. Sometimes retreat is needed," Father replied. "No one has any right to harm any of you. Especially me."

Dick, Todd, and Brown all nodded vigorously, but Cain and Drake had the same bit of disbelief that Damian had. He was surprised Father would even say that. It hurt to be told that. If it was a lie, then Father and Mother were the same. If it was the truth, then Damian really was like Drake and Cain.

"Hey, breathe, Damian," Father said, kneeling and placing big, strong, gentle hands on Damian's shoulders. "Breathe."

"What did Talia do to him?" Todd muttered.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques. Reviews make my day!**


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art**

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Stephanie**

It was the middle of the night, but Stephanie could not sleep. Bruce and Dick were out in the streets on patrol, Jason was taking a breather in his apartment, and the other three were all in bed. So much had happened this summer. She had finally gained what she had wanted, so badly, for so long.

What she had not told anyone, was that the ache of longing was not completely gone. She loved her chosen family. She would die for any of them. Yet, she missed her mom. It hurt, that the dad she had been given would rather choose a life of crime over her, and her mom would find more comfort in a can of beer than in her lively daughter.

As she sat in one of the halls, in the curtained little window seat she had discovered let her have solitude, while still able to see members of the family racing down the hall, jumping banisters, or slamming bedroom doors, she heard the grandfather clock in Bruce's study below, strike two. A slow, light pair of footsteps trod on her ears once it rang itself to silence.

It was coming from the wrong direction to be Bruce or Dick, so she spun around towards where the family's bedroom wing connected to the hall.

Damian was walking towards her, looking completely lost.

"What are you doing here?" She asked softly, aware any louder would wake at least one of the others.

"Mother said I had to leave," he muttered, continuing in slow, strange steps. "I'm not good enough."

"Damian, are you awake?" She asked.

"Father will send me away, too."

"Damian," she touched his shoulder.

He flinched, drawing his shoulder up, as if he was expecting a blow. She gently held him in place.

"Come on, wake up," she said. "You are safe here, Dami, I promise you are safe here. You won't get sent away, or hit, or ignored, if you aren't what your dad expects. He'll see you."

"Brown?" Damian flinched. "What are you doing? Why am I out here?"

"Oh, Dami," She said, and wrapped her arms around him. He tensed even more, fists clenching. "This isn't an attack, baby bat. You were having a nightmare and sleep walking."

"Mother will not like that," he said dully. "Will Father be mad?"

"No! You are afraid, Damian. Bruce, he knows about being afraid. He was younger than you, when his parents were killed. If he gets mad about us being up... I'll slap him!"

Tim or Cass would have laughed it off as a joke, but Damian did not understand it was a half joke. All he knew was that he had to be perfect, so his Mother would love him. In an opposite way, Stephanie understood perfectly. She had intentionally annoyed her father, just to be noticed.

"Why are you hugging me?" He asked.

"Because I'm not letting the world get near you. You are going to make it. I am not going to let you go," she said, giving him the promise she had wanted to hear.

"Why? I'm not what Father wants. He wants Drake, he wants Dick," the boy sneered, trying to pull away. She refused to let go.

"He can want you, too. Sometimes things take time. He's already said he's not giving you up. You are his blood I know, so that probably helps, but it is far more than I had."

He gripped the edge of his t-shirt tightly, wanting to slug her in the gut probably. She did not let go.

"But Father loves you," he hissed. "He is afraid of losing you."

"Yeah, and it's nice to have that, but he didn't want me in the first place. I forced my way in."

"He doesn't want me either. I am... I am his duty," The boy groaned, and then leaned into the hug, finally. "I think Grayson likes me more than Father does, and he shouldn't count. He likes everyone!"

"It's not that Bruce doesn't want you, it's that you are unexpected. He had no idea you existed because Talia hid you. Yes, he has a duty to you, but why does everyone act like doing something out of duty is not love? If my dad had done his duty, it would have been an act of love."

"You are really weird," Damian said. He pulled back and looked up at her. "Why does it make me feel safe?"

"Because I'm not letting go. You can be the brattiest kid in the world, but I am not going to let go. Call it duty, call it choice, but you will have me as family, whether you want it or not."

"Tt. Grayson says we're already family. If that is true, you are the strange one. Everyone else looks a little alike."

She laughed and pulled him into the window seat. "I like to stand out. Just think, you or Tim could get lost behind the dark hair, blue eyed Dick and Jason. I'll always pop out of the Wayne Family line up."

"Hemph," he choked, trying to stop a laugh.

"Let's hide here, and when Dick and Bruce come up, jump out and scare them," She said.

**Bruce**

The soft sounds of breathing caught his notice, as he steered his half asleep eldest towards the bedrooms. Dick mumbled something about cereal, and continued on, without noticing the hiding child. Alfred would not be pleased if Dick ate a snack in his bed, but Bruce decided Dick would have to deal with that. He turned to the window seat, that had become Stephanie's safe place.

Stephanie opened her eyes, when he pulled the little curtain aside. She blinked a little at him.

"Gonna scare you, but Dami fell asleep," she murmured sleepily. "Had a nightmare and sleep walkin'. Promise not to give him back. You promise."

"I promise," Bruce said. "I promise you and him won't have to go back."

"Knew it, still not letting go," she said, leaning her head back against the wood panels, letting him see that she had Damian curled up on the seat. between her and the window, mostly covered by the purple blanket she had dragged there. "Not letting go, Bruce. Won't be like... my dad."

"I know," Bruce said, easing her into a better sleeping position. "I won't let go, either."

**Bruce**

As September came into being, sending Stephanie and Tim back to school, tensions began to die down. Dick made it his life mission to raise Damian, Bruce had eyes on Arthur Brown, who was sneaking around in dubious areas. Cass and Damian were tutored at home by Dick. After Damian's second panic attack, even Jason had begun to relent towards him a little.

Crystal Brown would hopefully be leaving rehab soon, and Bruce was considering the options for work for her, hoping an occupation would keep her from the despair and the bottle.

Stephanie and Dick had both connected to Damian. Damian did not realize that he used their first names on occasion. The boy still did not understand why Bruce did not kill, but there were glimmers of understanding. No one was supposed to know about his nightmares and sleep walking but Stephanie, who had somehow attuned herself to him, so if he stirred in the night, she woke up. It was, however, an open family secret.

Healing from these latest trials would take time, but Bruce was able to see his family growing closer together. All except one.

Tim was always tense, watching and waiting for an attack that Damian was too frightened to make. It had escaped both Jason and Dick's notice that Robin had fallen back into his old patterns of quiet watchfulness. Jason had been far too overprotective, and Tim was annoyed with him, while Dick had thrown himself into redeeming Damian. Cass saw, but as much as Tim loved her, he would not confide in her as he would Jason. Cass might be older, the better fighter, and able to see through Tim's masks, but Tim had taken her under his wing to teach and protect from the world her father had not shared with her. Steph also remarked how quiet Tim was, but Tim did not ask for her support.

Not for the first time, Bruce wished he could read his third Robin's mind. He wanted to know if Tim was not going to Stephanie because she had connected with Damian, if their rather amicable split as girlfriend and boyfriend had built a wall between them, or if Tim did not think anyone would give him support. Alfred made every effort to draw Tim out, but usually would find Bruce to snidely inform him that Tim was just like him.

"What are you working on?" Bruce asked, Tim late one afternoon. The sixteen-year-old was bent over his laptop, typing furiously, or pausing to look out the window for ideas.

"We're remaking the Titans, you know," he replied. "After Dick left them, they sort of disbanded. Roy, Donna, and Kori tend to band together, but the others are gone on to other things. Raven and Beast Boy are willing to help us get set up. Young Justice was pretty much disbanded after last summer. Kon, and Bart, and Cassie, and I, are going to remake the Titans. By the way, Jason is hanging out with Roy, Kori, and Donna a lot. I think they might be plotting something similar."

That was more surprising than it should have been. Jason was never gone for long, but he did take many day trips all over, usually with those three. He made it sound like it was just young adults needing to commiserate, but it was entirely possible that a new group would be formed. As for the Titans, it might give Tim a much-needed boost.

"I am aware of Jason's friends," he said, though Tim grinned knowingly at him. "What has you plotting so furiously?"

"Raven and Beast Boy don't want to lead. I was chosen to lead the Titans at our last meeting," Tim said a little shyly. Tim's tendencies to hide and mask things had led to a squabble among Young Justice the previous fall. The fall out was that Tim had stepped down from leadership. Wonder Girl had led for a few months, but without Tim's mind behind them, they had become aimless and disbanded, although the friendships remained. His friends had forgiven him for hiding the trouble he went through with Jason's return, and were ready to let him lead them again.

"Does this mean you will be heading to San Francisco every weekend?" Bruce frowned. "And leaving me with Dick and Jason?"

"It won't be every weekend," Tim said earnestly. "But yes, we will have regular meetings and stay overs. I think it would do some good for me to be away a couple days."

In typical Tim speak, he had not mentioned whose good it was. Bruce frowned.

"If this is your way of sneaking away because of Damian, I won't let you go. I promised this was your home Tim. I know things are hard for you right now, but I'm not letting you go."

Stephanie's sleepy words popped out of his mouth unexpectedly. Tim looked offended.

"I'm not leaving, I'm just expanding. I think I am old enough to make that decision."

Right. Because to Tim it would appear as a controlling statement. For Damian and Stephanie, the words were a promise they would not be sent away. For Tim, they were a threat to make him do something he did not want to. Perhaps Clark was right, and Bruce's pieced together family was a little more damaged than he knew. He did not know how these neglected, abused, ignored children had become his, but he would not give them up for the world.

"If that is what you want to do, apart from any other consideration, then I am glad to see this. You are a great leader. What I mean, is that this will not be running away. This is still your home."

"You have said that a lot. I am hearing you, Bruce," Tim said irritably.

"You haven't fully believed me, yet," Bruce replied. To Batman, Robin would have protested, but from Tim to Bruce, it was not a lie he could pull off.

Tim glanced out the library window to the side yard, where Dick was continuing his lessons on defense, with both Damian and Stephanie. There was a little jealousy in his demeanor, the first real hint of why he could not relax. Dick treated Tim the same as before, with hugs and jokes, praising him and teasing him, but he had less time for Tim. Worse than that, Dick had not understood the full impact of Damian's attack on Tim. After being promised a family, a new member had tried to force Tim out. For Dick, it would have been a futile gesture, but not for Tim.

Tim still wondered how he had the right to belong.

Dick's affection for Damian had made him wonder about it a bit more. Intellectually, Tim understood why Dick fought so hard for the preteen. Emotionally, he retreated in fear that he would have to see Dick choose Damian over him.

"I've been looking all over for you!" Jason marched into the room. "Bruce, I told you, he needed time away from work. Come on, baby bird. We are going to the skate park. I am going to make that jump, if it's the last thing I do. We'll drag the others along too. Dick is going to have Stephanie and the brat doing blocks in their sleep, if he doesn't give them a break. Besides, you can rub the Brat's nose in the fact that he can't skateboard."

And then there was Jason. Upon being restored to his right mind, Jason had determined to right his wrongs against Tim, and ended up being even more overprotective as a big brother than Dick was. Fortunately, his brotherliness included distractions like video games and skateboard parks and less smothering hugs. For Stephanie, and perhaps Damian, Dick's smothering worked. Maybe not Damian, as there had been some threats made recently as Damian grew more confident that he was not being sent away.

"Where is the Silent Ninja?" Jason demanded, as he picked Tim up and threw him over his shoulder. "She's coming too. I think you should be grateful, Bruce. You'll have a child free afternoon."

"Thank you, Jason, for stealing my hardworking children to go play. I hope their work ethic rubs off on you," Bruce retorted.

Roaring with laughter, and quite proud of getting a reaction, Jason bore the half-hearted struggling Tim to find Cass and round up the others. Bruce had to wonder when his biggest and loudest child had gotten home from his most recent excursion.

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**I am posting 2 chapters tonight as I may not get a chance tomorrow.**


	16. Chapter Sixteen

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Jason**

When any one member of the Wayne family entered a social event, they drew eyes.

Upon the arrival of Bruce Wayne, and all six of his adopted, fostered, and biological children, they nearly shut the Kane's October Autumn Gala down. It was not often that Bruce brought everyone, though he rarely went without one or another of his children. This was the first event where Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne, were present as well. Naturally every gossip, journalist, blogger, and socialite turned to drink in the magnificence of the Waynes.

The blonde-haired, slender girl, who had been taken in for her protection from her criminal father, stood out among the dark heads. She had accompanied Cassandra Wayne and Timothy Drake to events on occasion, so she was not completely unknown, but her appearance among the Waynes was startling. Bruce had never shied away from presenting his adopted and fostered children into his rich world. Many thought he took it too far, but a few sharper-eyed observers noted that the family all tended to look alike. Stephanie broke that mold.

Jason had not wanted to come, but the Kane's yearly Gala must be attended by any offshoot of the Kane family. Since Bruce called them all his family, he forced his stuffy relatives to let his children in. It could be amusing on occasion. Stephanie was certainly causing consternation.

She was too confident and lively, to be daunted by the severe looks of the rich, old women. She would never have the exotic beauty of Cass, or the flaming draw of Babs, but the contradiction of her circumstances and her confidence, to say nothing of the brilliant personality, drew more than a few male eyes. The big brother in Jason wanted to glare at them, but Steph and Cass were good at crushing male pretensions.

"Todd, what is Grayson doing?" The Brat demanded.

Jason glanced down at the smallest of their family, recently turned twelve years old, wondering why he had to be asked the question. A glance, around the crowded ballroom, informed him that Bruce and Tim were in conversation with Lucius Fox, Steph and Cass were against the back wall with some children, who had looked bored prior to having the Wayne girls come over, and Dick... Ah yes. Dick was in his natural habitat, standing tall, talking to a crowd of young, charmed women.

"Dick is being himself," Jason said.

"He's letting those vapid females all over him!"

Well, that was an exaggeration. Certainly, Dick had received one or two touches to the arms or shoulders, but anything more would be met with the agile, elusive acrobat. He was however, enjoying smiles and titters, as he spoke to his captivated audience. Jason had to grin.

"He likes the attention."

**Damian**

Todd was no help at all in understanding what Grayson was doing.

Damian would have preferred to ask Brown about it, but she and Cain were 'making friends' with a few bored looking children. Since this was meant for Damian's so-called benefit, he dared not go near. The children were as stupid and useless as this meeting, where nothing happened, but inept rich peopled showed off their wealth. Why Father insisted this was important, was beyond Damian's understanding.

Unfortunately, that meant Damian was going to have to go to Father and Drake for an explanation.

With a glare for the intensely amused street rat, Damian stalked through the crowd towards his parent. It was hard work, since he had to avoid the old women who wanted to marvel at his resemblance to his father, or the tittering social climbers who wanted to dig his maternity out of him, or even the booming rich men who wanted to mine information to use against father's company. He had to do this without stabbing or punching anyone!

"Do you remember my daughter, Tamara?" Wayne Enterprises CEO was saying, when Damian finally made it to Father's elbow.

"Yes, how are you, Miss Fox? Lucius tells me Wayne Enterprises has gained you as an intern," Father said.

"Yes, sir," the dark-skinned girl said. "There is still some question to what division I will intern for, but I am very grateful for the opportunity."

"I am excited to see promise in Lucius's family. He has been a huge asset to Wayne Enterprises, and I would love to see that stay in the family. As for what division, Tim, you were looking at my papers this afternoon. What do you think?"

"I think Miss Pennell, the Manager of the Wayne Medical branch, would be a good place to start. She is hard working and has helped me to understand a lot about the division," Drake said smoothly. He turned a bright, warm smile on the girl. "Drake Industries had a Medical Division, primarily in home-health supplies, and Bruce let me work with it this summer."

Heat flared in Damian's ears, as Drake spoke. It was not the playful banter of Grayson, but it was confident and powerful, and the young woman looked intrigued. Damian had forgotten that Drake had been hanging around Wayne Enterprises with Father most of the summer. Even when school had taken up more of the teenager's time, he had still visited once or twice a week. So, not only was Drake putting on a new mask with the girl, but he was also appearing as Father's Heir.

"Tim's very smart," Father beamed, as he tugged the teenager under one of his arms. "I'm glad we're partners, since he has a good head on his shoulders. He's the one to talk to, Tamara."

"If you would like, we can find a seat and discuss it in more depth, unless you don't want to talk about it here, at a Gala," Drake offered Miss Fox.

"I would like that," The girl replied.

Drake offered his arm, and led her off, while finally, Father turned to Damian.

"Do we have to stay long?" Damian mumbled, desperate to escape the stuffy room where Dick was so strange, and Drake proved his superiority again.

"I would prefer you all stayed until after the meal, but if you and Jason find yourselves desperate, you may head home."

"With Todd?" Damian blurted. "Can't Grayson take me?"

That would be a good way to get Grayson out of the horde. It was a neat little plan. Play the bored little brother, and the big brother would take him away, leaving behind those ogling girls!

"Dick loves these things," Father answered. "Jason hates them. It wouldn't be fair to make Jason stay and Dick leave."

There was amusement in Father's eyes, as he glanced from Damian, to where Grayson's voice was rising and falling energetically. With a glare at his Father, Damian marched back into the gauntlet. Father was playing his ridiculous social role, Grayson was flirting, and Drake had put on a new face. Damian wished Brown was not eager for him to make friends with his peers, because that left Todd as his only haven.

Considering that Todd still threatened to kill Damian, if he even looked at Drake wrong, this was a disturbing thought.

"Father is being stupid," Damian informed Todd, after he survived the eager hands and voices of Gotham's elite. "Why does everyone act so different?"

Todd raised a sardonic eyebrow and looked around the room for the various members of Father's Family of Strays. "I don't think Steph and Dick are playing parts, so much as living out their social dreams. Dick was a Circus Performer, brat. He loves the limelight."

"Brown didn't have that," Damian argued.

"She wanted it though. She wants attention, because her dad ignored her."

Arthur Brown was a foolish man, Damian thought. Brown was certainly not the most skilled person, but she was more intelligent than any of the fancy debutants present. He glanced nervously around for her. He dared not speak his grudging admiration of her audacity, since she had not acknowledged his superiority of birth. If she saw him grimacing at the mention of her father, she might guess he had grown to respect her.

"What about Drake? He's almost as bad as Grayson. He was smiling and charming Fox's daughter, but he protested having to come as much as you did."

The large pair of shoulders on Todd shook with restrained laughter. Damian scowled, angry at the laughter and his own slip up in revealing his frustration at Drake's ability to switch faces. He clenched his fists fiercely, reminding himself that he could not punch people for laughing at him.

"Come on, Brat. Bruce gave me the nod. We've paid our hour of dues to Gotham's society. Let's go home."

**Jason**

Damian was wary enough of Jason to hesitate before agreeing to leave, but a scathing look towards Dick made up the boy's mind.

"Mother is very different in society. She would use something like this to show how superior she is. Why can't Father do something the same? People were smiling condescendingly at him," Damian groused as they got into Jason's car.

"It's part of the lie of the Wayne Family," Jason pointed out, sharply eyeing the kid until he buckled up. "Brucie Wayne is a somewhat idle, somewhat foolish man because that's what society expects of the tragic rich man. He makes everyone think he can be walked all over, and only Lucius and Tim keep him safe from making bad deals.

"Dick can flirt, and laugh, and play here. Society is strange enough to think he must be a little empty headed, as well. Cass is considered disabled, which excuses a lot from her. Steph may throw everyone for a while, but she'll probably end up like Dick, just with less flirting and more materialism."

The kid thought this through with a frown. "Then what about Drake? What is he?"

"Tim is the frail genius of the family. Everyone knows he's intelligent and sharp, but they think he's weak physically. He dresses to enhance his teenage thinness."

"I don't understand why," Damian snorted. "I would show off my strength, and force people to respect me."

"That would give away your secrets. Showing your full strengths let's someone like Tim see it's weak points. Certainly, you don't have to play the role of fragile nerd, but instead of boasting about your intelligence, make the world see something else. They can't connect you to Batman, and it gives you a place in the glittering world of high society, where a good deal of crime and corruption exists."

"So, it's part of Father's work to end crime."

"Yes," Jason answered, vaguely. It was certain that they had done investigations using the various Wayne roles, but playing the fool and hunting through the ranks for crime was not all it was good for, at least for the others of the family. Jason disliked it too much, and had built up his own persona of uneasy, resentful street rat. Even that had its place. Bruce used all their public roles in investigations, and more. He made business connections, powerful acquaintances, and even befriended some good men and women, whom he could manipulate into working on charities and economic growth where he thought best.

"Then, if I am to show Father I can be what he wants, I must make a role, too," Damian announced.

"As a spoiled, whiny Brat?" Jason suggested resentfully.

"I do not whine! That is a terrible idea. Father's inane act is used to explain his philanthropy, Dick's flirting helps make friends, and Drake's... intelligence gives the Family an excuse to be the best business. I will have to find something."

The comment about Tim was growled out, and Jason glanced at the Brat, catching the jealousy, but also something a little deeper. Tim had surprised Damian, who did not take that well at all, but the boy was smart enough to respect Tim's abilities now that he had seen them in more depth. Despite the fury Jason still had on Tim's behalf, he had to admit Bruce had made the right choice. He wanted to throttle the Brat, but he did not want to send him back to Talia.

If the kid could just see past his 'superior' blood, and realize he had the same opportunity the rest of them had, Jason might even grow to like him.

**Damian**

Todd offered a few more foolish ideas for Damian to use as his 'secret identity' before they reached home.

"I know! Why don't you become loud and clown around?"

"Father might agree with me that you are reaching the attacking stage and I can stab you," Damian growled, shoving past Todd.

"Was that a joke, short bat? I think you made a joke, since we both know you'd never have a chance against me."

"I am not short!"

The look in Todd's eyes was horrifyingly like what he looked at Brown and Cain like, before calling them Blondie and Silent Ninja. Damian cringed. Todd would beat this to death. He might get away with attacking Todd, since even Grayson got annoyed with the never ending disco wing jokes. Damian had even witnessed Drake throw a book at Todd after too many 'Timmers' were said.

"As the tallest of the Family, I regret to inform you that you are the short bat," Todd smirked.

"Father's taller than you!"

"Bruce doesn't count because he's the Dad. Besides, I might pass him up any day now. You, on the other hand, have several years before you shoot up, and even then, Talia and Ra's aren't the tallest. You might be short bat forever."

"No, I won't! Grayson isn't even six feet, so I'll be taller than him. Drake is too scrawny to grow tall. I bet I'll even be taller than you when I'm grown up. Then I'll be the tallest in the Family!"

Todd's mouth dropped open and he stared at Damian.

"What is your problem, idiot? Are you conceding I'm right?"

"You just called us Family, brat."

"No, I didn't!" Damian yelled, but horror washed over him as he realized he had. How had that happened? They were not supposed to be his family. They were supposed to be his rivals.

"Love you, too, Brat," Todd crooned, then had horror fall over his face. "Never thought I'd say that."

"Argh!" Damian threw a punch. Todd dodged easily, and began to laugh.

"That was pitiful. If you must be Family, you should know how to punch."

"I know how to punch!" Damian swung again. Todd caught his fist.

"You know something, but punching wildly like that only puts you off balance."

"If you weren't so infuriating..." Damian trailed off, before he admitted he had lost his temper, and with it, any careful skill.

"I can't believe I'm falling for this, but come on, short bat. I'm going to show you how to punch while you're angry."

Todd grabbed Damian by the back of his shirt, easily dodging the next punch. He swung them both around towards Father's study. Damian kicked out, although he was too off balance to swing hard enough. It surprised him when the kick connected with Todd's shin. The man did not even flinch, becoming still as stone. His face had gone pale and Damian stilled. He followed Todd's sight towards the study door.

Pennyworth stood there, graver than Damian had ever seen him.

"Cluemaster and a gang have taken the Gala hostage. Master Timothy got a signal to the cave, but has since gone dark. There are reports of shots fired.".

**After a crazy weekend I get to work just a half day, so I am home and will post two chapters today since I ended up missing yesterday as well.**

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Tim**

When his phone buzzed, Tim wondered how they had not expected this.

"What is wrong?" Tam Fox asked. Surprised by her perception, Tim stared at her, reevaluating. She was a sheltered, rich girl who had taken advantage of all the opportunities she had, but not one he had believed would see beyond the end of her own nose. It was not often someone surprised Tim.

"Stephanie's dad, who threatened to kill her, was just spotted outside the hotel," He replied, bluntly. Her eyes widened. "There is no current restraining order, but Bruce hired an investigator to keep watch."

Well, more like Tim had hacked Oracle's surveillance network, to run a new facial recognition program he designed to monitor the threats to his family. This was going to open that can of worms. He wondered how mad Babs would be. Bruce had caught him at it and pointed out that all the heat would come down on Tim.

"I've let Bruce and the others know. Security will be sent to check it out, but I can't help but worry about her. She was really brave to testify against him," Tim said sheepishly, fingers running down the side of his jacket where he had his collapsed staff hidden.

Across the room Cass was pushing Stephanie out of the room, despite the blonde's protests. Dick and Bruce were caught in the center of the room and were too noticeable to get out. As for Tim, his interest in learning who Tam Fox was had trapped him. While it was an open secret that Mr. Fox knew what the Wayne Family really was, no such connection had been made to any of his family. His eldest daughter worked in social services, his son was in college; Tam was also a college student, but as the only child following her father's steps, had been drawn into Wayne Enterprises.

When she had read the minute concern in his face, he had discovered she was far more observant than expected. This was a big complication. She did not know, and he did not think either Bruce or Lucius would be pleased if he let her see enough to put the pieces together. Therefore, he was restricted from sneaking out, as well as using any part of his physical training.

"Can I ask about your family? Dad fondly mentions most of Mr. Wayne's 'kids', but no one really knows why..."

"Why Bruce has adopted, fostered, or taken parental duties to so many of us?" Tim smiled. "I think he was lonely. He wanted a family, but he never met the right person to start a family with. So, when he saw Dick's parents killed, it reminded him of himself, he had to help. It just snowballed from there."

Her face lit up with amusement, but also question.

"There is a lot of question about you," she said awkwardly. Tim blinked. He was not sure if it was just a social faux pas, or a disguise to interrogate him.

"I am aware of that," he said lightly. "I like being the mystery. My siblings all have their specialties that draw people to them, but I am unique just because no one knows what made Bruce decided I was one of his."

"Dad says -," she began, but Tim dove for the ground, dragging her out of her seat and to the floor as the first spray of bullets into the ceiling began.

"GET DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!" There were seven, eight, twelve men. They wore masks, which was a good sign, but carried automatics with fingers on the triggers.

He pulled one of his phones out, changing the warning on the Bat Network to an all-out emergency alert, then using the other phone to place a brief, whispered call to the police. The Birds and Phoenix were not present at the Gala. Next to him, Tam was on the ground with her hands over her head, shaking with nerves. Cass and Stephanie were out of the Ballroom area, hopefully out of the building, but Spoiler could not make an appearance.

The gunmen were all walking among the rich, the famous, the powerful, and taking their valuables.

Tim propped his civilian phone against one of the legs of the table he and Tam were partly under, to record the events. Cluemaster had not yet made an appearance, but two of the men had pulled Bruce to his feet. Dick had not been discovered yet, and had nearly gotten to the door before the invasion.

He needed to separate from Tam, in case he needed to make a scene.

His bat phone alerted him that the signal was jammed.

**Bruce**

If Babs went to ream Tim out for the hack, Bruce was going to have to take the heat after all. Oracle refused to allow her system to be used for tests of new programs, but Tim had written this program only after Stephanie had come to the manor. He had done a single test before putting into Oracle's Network. It was paying dividends.

"Ah, Mr. Wayne, our boss wants to see you," two of the thugs said.

"I don't have anything else on me," Bruce said meekly, as they pulled him to his feet. Dick had almost made it out the door with one of his fangirls on his arm before the invasion. Tim had not even been able to make the attempt after managing to intrigue Tam Fox.

"Not even my daughter?" Cluemaster demanded as he stalked into the room, right past Dick's head. Bruce felt one of his worries lessen. One of the benefits of Dick's flirtatious persona was that no one took him very seriously. He was concerned that Arthur Brown would use Dick or Tim as bargaining chips.

Brown had only been told that Stephanie had made friends with Tim and Cass, which explained Bruce Wayne's decision to offer her shelter when threatened by her father. With Spoiler's return to the street not public knowledge yet, Brown had not pieced together that she had been taken into the Bat Family as well. He was intelligent enough to put that coincidence together.

Cass would have to keep Stephanie out of this fight.

"I think Stephanie went home with a couple of the others," Bruce said quietly, keeping his shoulders hunched to portray submission, but allowing enough steel to come through to show he would not give her up.

This was not going to be pretty to discuss with his Aunt Kane, the current matriarch of that side of his family. She would never publicly denounce his actions, but there was no doubt she felt six children were a bit excessive charity. Her Gala being ruined because of the dangers to one of the children would lead to a nasty scolding.

"I happen to know that only two of your charities went home, the street rat and the newest one," Cluemaster laughed. "She's still here."

"Really? I had a text from her saying she was leaving," he held up his phone.

Steph had texted an excuse text, moments after Cass texted Bruce's hidden phone that they got out of the building.

C & I going for real chocolate :). This fancy stuff is sickening.

"We were watching every exit. I know she's still here," Cluemaster said, gripping the other man's shirt. "You may be idiotic enough to think you can get me to leave, but she's here. Not sure why you wanted her in the first place. You're just a bored rich man. I know your type. You'd pay a million dollars to save your own life. She doesn't even cost you that much to care for."

Dick was easing backwards now that the goons were past him. Bruce tilted his head, staring at the stupid mask. For some reason those villains who aspired to so-called super-villainy thought a mask was scary enough. None, except Scarecrow, really thought the costume through. All they really wanted was attention, failing to see the purpose behind a costume.

"But a person's life can't be valued with money." Sometimes Bruce liked the simplicity of being Brucie. Not quite an idiot, but seeing the world very basically.

He could see those brave enough to look up at their captors' grimace at the plain words.

"Maybe not to you, who has never suffered for want of money, but to most people there is a price. They said you were stupid, Wayne, but they never said you were an idealist. Fine. Is one girl's life worth the life of a son?"

Dick was so close to getting to the door. Bruce held his breath as Cluemaster began to turn around.

A clatter on the opposite side of the room turned everyone's eyes away from Dick, who was immediately out the door. There was no relief at that, because Bruce knew, before the shouts began, what had happened. It was likely having Nightwing would make the rescue operation smoother, but it would place Tim in the center of the struggle, unarmed and unable to fight.

"What are you doing? What are you doing?!" The thugs nearest Tim were yelling. Several screams came from the area behind Bruce. "Boss, he's got a phone! He's got a phone."

"We jammed the signals," Cluemaster said calmly.

"Then how is there a call logged to the Police?"

"What? Bring that brat over here!"

"Get up! Get up!"

A few seconds later Tim was frog marched between Cluemaster and Bruce. He glanced briefly at Bruce, but gave no signal of anything.

"I should have guessed it would be one of Wayne's brats. Were you wanting to turn this into a hostage situation? We would have taken your valuables and my daughter and been out of here if you hadn't done that."

"You planned to come here and rob Gotham's elite, kidnap someone Bruce Wayne is taking care of, and walk out of here, with no consequences?" The teenager said. "I thought you were supposed to be a smart man."

"I'm smart enough to know you're worth more than my daughter any day," Cluemaster snapped.

Both the masked men, holding Tim's arms tightly behind his back, pulled out pistols. If Tim was Robin he would already be free, but as Timothy Drake, the nerdy genius, he could not make a move. Tim's eyes shifted slightly behind Cluemaster. The cavalry had arrived.

The lights went out.

"Well, well, well," Phoenix's voice echoed through the room. "This, young grasshopper, is what we call a hostage situation."

"I'm not stupid," Damian's voice replied.

Jason was grounded and penniless from this moment onward. What did he think he would accomplish, letting Bruce's assassin trained twelve-year-old son along for the ride?

"Spoiler, Batgirl, nice of you to join the party."

Bruce was grounding them all! Had he taught them nothing? A flash of a purple cape in the door way was the disheartening answer to that. Cluemaster laughed.

"Still playing the petty little girl, Stephy?" He taunted.

Finally, Bruce had adjusted to the dim lighting. He could see Phoenix in a corner, holding back the tense hooded figure of Damian. Nightwing and Batgirl were on the ground, silencing the outer hostages and sneaking them backwards.

"Come here, girl," Cluemaster shouted. Spoiler stood silent in the doorway, not moving. "No? What if I give this one a third eye? He's one of your rich friends protecting you."

With a sneer, he pressed a pistol against Tim's forehead. Bruce tensed. It would be easy to knock out the thugs on either side of him.

"Don't!" Spoiler hissed as she moved forward. Bruce stared at Tim, who gave a curious side eyed glance. That was not Steph's voice and the gait was not Stephanie's. Who had come up with this plan and why was Bruce not aware of it?

"So stupid of you," Cluemaster shook his head.

"Was she your daughter?" Spoiler asked. "The girl who wore this before me?"

They had completely distracted Cluemaster and his thugs. Phoenix, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Damian were now taking down the seven thugs at the edges of the room, while Oracle's Birds of Prey moved the hostages out. There were about seven men and women on the ground around Cluemaster's main two hostages.

The gun pressed against Tim's head shook.

"What?"

The full-face mask on Batgirl was allowing Stephanie to still take part here. Jason or Dick? Neither was inclined to be this subtle. Tim might have come up with something like this, but had not had time to give them the details they needed. Of course, any one could have made basic plan, and they were making the rest up as they went along.

"She was sad when she offered it to me. She said she had done what she needed with it, and asked if I could do good with it. It was my fight, now."

Cluemaster would never have allowed Batgirl so near. Everyone knew what she could do. But Spoiler was not well known and those who did know her, knew she was nowhere near as trained as Robin was, much less Batgirl.

The two thugs on either side of Bruce went limp in the arms of the two taller vigilantes. Damian grabbed Bruce's hand and tugged, wanting to pull him away. Bruce was not wearing a cowl, was aware that if Cass got close enough she could take Cluemaster and the thugs down, but with that gun still pressed to Tim's forehead, he could not leave. Stephanie, as Batgirl, had left the room.

Phoenix and Nightwing were approaching Cluemaster from behind.

The two men holding Tim saw them and lifted their guns to point at them.

"We appear to be at a stale mate here," Cluemaster said. "I don't know how you are doing this, but it's not going to work, Stephy. It's you."

Tim's phone, tossed onto the table nearest Cluemaster, buzzed. The Birds had found and disabled the signal jammers.

"What? What is going on?" Cluemaster shouted, using his free hand to seize the phone. Steph's picture was on it. "Who is this?"

"Tim? What is going on?" Steph's voice came through in frantic whispers. "Jason just texted me and told me to get home. He said there were gunmen in the Gala."

"No. This is a trick," Cluemaster shouted. He pushed Tim's head back with the gun, glaring at Spoiler. "Take off that hood, or I will shoot him before any of you can make another move."

"Dad, please don't," Stephanie shouted in the phone. "I'll come, I'll come."

A catalyst was needed to let Cass take the hood down.

"Please," Bruce begged her, "Don't let him kill Tim."

Spoiler stood silent for a moment longer, then reached up and pulled the hood off. The black face mask remained for a moment before she slowly folded it down to reveal her dark hair and eyes. She did not take it down all the way, keeping her nose, mouth, chin and ears covered.

"Your daughter gave this to me when you went to prison. I was fighting on the streets to protect my sisters. She said to use it, to make some good come out of what you had done."

Then she moved. Behind Arthur, Nightwing and Phoenix both moved as well. Tim dropped much as possible in the arms of his captors, right before all three vigilantes struck. The gun went off, but Phoenix had gotten hold of his arm, so the shot went on an upward trajectory, missing Tim completely. Spoiler kicked Arthur in the gut, sending him stumbling backwards into Nightwing, who slammed one of his eskrima sticks down on the villain's head.

"Phoenix, take the Batgirl and the Kid back to patrol and back Batman and Robin up. The boss is going to ream us out for being distracted by this. I'll stay and handle the cleanup," Nightwing said a moment later. The lights came on.

Damian had backed away before the lights came on, so that he was nearly out of sight, and not holding his Father's hand. Spoiler replaced her hood and marched out, stopping only to give the unconscious Cluemaster a kick in the shin. None of them seemed hurt, so Bruce dove for Tim, who was seated on the floor, looking tired.

"Hey, Bruce. He broke my phone," Tim said sadly, pointing to the cracked civilian phone under Cluemaster's arm.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Jason**

"Well, that was eventful," Jason said, leaping to his feet as those caught in the Gala finally arrived home, hours later. Stephanie and Cass had had to return, to play the shocked and horrified daughters, while Nightwing had to give the police their report, disappear and reappear as a badly shaken Richard Grayson, so Jason and Damian had had a few hours to await their return. Both were anticipating the scolding they knew was coming, but they had not discussed it.

Tim, looking tired, but the least ruffled by the whole affair, shrugged. "At least it puts him back in prison."

The darkening round bruise on his forehead made Jason glare at him. Of course, it made sense for Tim to distract the goons when Dick had more chance of getting out to help, but no one was happy that it had come so close. Bruce had a hand on the teenager's shoulder, looking like he did not want to let go. Cass and Dick were wrapped around Stephanie, who was the most disturbed by the nights events.

"Who came up with the idea to put Cass in the Spoiler suit?" Bruce asked.

"I'm sorry if it was wrong," Stephanie blurted. "I couldn't sit back while it was my fault. Cass wasn't going to go if I wouldn't stay back, not until I suggested we switch roles."

Every pair of eyes fell on her, even Damian's. She shrank a little under the gaze.

"That was smart. Now everyone who knows you created Spoiler, thinks you gave it up once your dad was in prison. You showed someone else had the suit, and gave the illusion that it was mere chance you weren't in that room," Tim said. "We'll do a few interviews, explain what you did, maybe mention that Batman threatened to have you exposed if you didn't give it up, so you handed it off to a street girl trying to protect her people, who was much better at it."

"Play the silly blonde who just wanted to get back at her father?" Stephanie said, and then nodded. "That works."

"There are more than a few questions I want answered," Bruce interjected. "However, I believe we will discuss these after a good night's rest."

"Pillow Party!" Cass shouted. She grabbed Tim and Jason's arms to race them up the stairs.

"What about one in your room, too, little bat?" Dick offered. "I have fruit loops and Steph has chocolate."

As Tim was too tired, and too understanding, to protest the projected invasion of his room by Jason and Cass, Jason had time to wonder why the lines of division in the family seemed much blurrier than before. Bruce looked exhausted, but Jason knew he would not sleep much. After that evening, with the threat to Stephanie, and the danger Tim had run, Bruce would be up every hour to check on them all. He did not look too mad. Jason thought he might be able to talk his way around his decision not to argue with Damian. Alfred had not put up an argument either, when Damian began to suit up.

**Bruce**

Even though questions hung over all their heads, and nothing of the previous evening had been physically taxing, even for those who had fought, they were all in bed until late morning. No one in Gotham would be surprised that the Waynes secluded themselves after the traumatic experience. There would be a host of things to sort out, from dealing with Aunt Kane, letting Stephanie give a sheepish interview to explain the birth of Spoiler, probably deal with the speculation of who Damian's hooded vigilante was, probably have a host of superheroes calling to check on them, figure out how Arthur Brown had afforded the services of twelve thugs for hire, etc.

That next morning though, was quiet as they sat down to a late breakfast. Some probably wanted to avoid the conversation, others probably wanted to sort it out after caffeine, and others wanted to eat their breakfast in peace. Bruce let the silence go on, glancing around the table every now and then. It was good to see them all there, safe and sound.

Despite certain frustrations, Bruce felt a momentous pride in them all.

"Miss Gordon is here to see the family," Alfred announced. Tim groaned and let his head fall onto the table. The butler looked fondly at the teenager. "She does not appear to be too angry."

"Say, I think I left my window open in my bedroom and it looks like rain," Jason said.

Bruce grabbed his wrist.

"You have the most to explain. It's going to happen. Should an actual cloud appear, we can always let Damian go close your window."

"I wouldn't. He set a sensor in the window that fires a paintball gun pointed at the spot. Apparently, too many people were using his window as easy access to the backroom roof," Tim informed them.

"Well, aren't we all in a good mood today?" Barbara Gordon exclaimed, as she wheeled herself into the dining room. "Since Jason isn't scrubbing a car, Tim hasn't finished his coffee, and Damian isn't in time out, I suppose the explanations haven't happened, yet."

She smiled meanly, while Bruce and his three older sons looked determinedly at their breakfast, Stephanie and Cass gave her sheepish smiles, and Alfred slipped out of the room.

"Why are you all afraid of her?" Damian asked. Everyone groaned in disgust at his bluntness.

"I can explain that, Damian," Babs said sweetly. "Bruce knows he has to keep me happy, because I can lock him out of his own systems, Dick and Jason know to keep me happy, so I don't send them into smelly places, Tim touched my system without permission, and Cass and Stephanie came up with a risky plan on the fly."

"Well, throw everything out at once, why don't you?" Jason snarked.

"I'm not sorry," Tim announced. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Our plan worked, too," Cass added.

"Barbara," Bruce declared, "we will finish breakfast, and coffee, then we will go downstairs and review everything we have on last night."

A smirk was his answer, as she shoved the chair next to Tim aside and rolled there, accepting Alfred's offered cup of coffee and plate of waffles.

**Damian**

He had seen them in action before, but taking a part had revealed something more about his Father and the strays. Father might be the leader, but none of them were his complete servants. There had been a lot of jokes about Father's orders, but the sight of Drake causing the distraction, of Spoiler appearing, of Damian's very presence, made him realize this was different from the do or die orders of his grandfather. Father had not had a hand in any of these. He had in fact, specifically ordered Spoiler out of the field when it came to Steph's father, and Damian was not even allowed in the cave.

Or had not been allowed. No one questioned his presence as they entered the command room off to the side of the main cave area. The command room was full of computer stations, with a large table in the center of the room. He had not fully examined this room previously, since there were more computer bays nearer the training mats and work benches, and these were used more often.

"Batman and the knights of the Oval table," Todd announced.

Here there was no question of who sat where. Father was at the head, Oracle at the foot and the others were lined up between them. There were more seats than people. Someone had created signs that were taped to the back of the chairs, with the different symbols for the different heroes.

"What is this?" Damian asked Brown.

"This is the official room of Batman and Co," She said. "When the Justice League puts out a call, and the various families check in via video conferencing, B wanted a specific room, separate from the rest."

"It has come to be our conversation room, for when things might get tense," Dick added. "The formality allows some of us to keep our tempers in check."

"There are more spots at the table than us," Damian pointed out.

"Alfred will be here in a moment. Lesley is occasionally involved, as is Catwoman, and both Wonder Woman and Superman are allowed a place at certain times," Grayson replied.

"Will I have a real place here?"

"Here we go," Drake muttered under his breath.

Father ignored Robin, who looked less angry at Damian, than afraid of Oracle.

"I would like you to, Damian. You have lived with us for five months. You have learned restraint, and proved you are capable of learning. At the very least, we believe you want the chance," Father answered Damian. He leaned forward, pressing his fingertips together. "You do not fully understand what we do here, or fully believe in our mission."

Feeling small and insignificant, Damian cringed, wondering if he had lost his chance with the actions of last night. He had been terrified for Father, and Grayson, and Brown. He had not stopped to think that going out, even with Todd's tacit agreement, might be the end of his stay here. It hurt, to know the others could disobey and get away with it, but he had to toe the exact line. Yet, he could not have done it differently. If he lost Father, if he lost Dick, even if he had lost Stephanie...

"I cannot apologize for last night, Father," He announced, squaring his shoulders as firmly as he could. He had not been following Mother's orders or Father's strictures last night. Last night, he had followed his own choice.

"I understand that," Father replied. "I would not have allowed it, but it was not my choice last night," a glance at Todd reminded them all who had not put up an argument, "and you did well. You saved lives last night. I am proud of you for that."

Warmth ran through Damian's chest. Grayson reached over and ruffled his head, which was normally irritating, since it messed his hair up. Today it was nice, an acknowledgement that Grayson was pleased with him, too. Brown was also beaming on him.

"Have I earned a place?" Damian asked carefully.

"You have no need to earn a place in the family. We have given you a place. As for a place on the streets, I am not ready to allow that," Father replied. As the warmth died away and Damian wondered if the fight with Drake would keep him out of Father's work forever, Father sighed. "You are too young, Damian. The others were all thirteen or fourteen before they were on the streets. More than that, most of what you know is lethal. You have to train to make your movements effective, but without killing."

"To say nothing of learning how to defend. You are great at offense for being so short," Todd snorted. "But you seem to think that taking a blow is no great deal."

"If it means I get the job done, why shouldn't I take a blow?" Damian asked.

"Because you shouldn't have to. Yes, there is a time and place for that, but it is not every time and every place," Father replied. "I am not allowing you out in the streets, but I will allow you into the cave now. Dick and Steph will continue to work with you on learning to properly defend, and I will work with you on how to fight without killing."

"Really?"

"Yes. The same restrictions apply to fights however. You may fight to defend, but there will be no attacks," Father said. "I do still want to know how Jason was convinced to let you go."

"I wasn't going to waste my time locking him up, not when the situation was so unknown. Timmy's alert had gone dead, and when we left here, we didn't know Blondie was out of the building before dear old dad arrived. I thought it better to just go and use his skills," Todd announced. "I am not gonna apologize for it."

As conversation turned away from Damian, he sat still, listening intently, but feeling happier than before.

Father had relaxed some of his restrictions. Grayson and Brown were still his allies, Todd might be a worthy one as well. Cain had never stood completely against him, though she was still wary of him. He might have found his place. Maybe he could make a new place, rather than take the one Drake held as the most favored.

"I needed it out there as soon as possible, Babs," Drake said, after her demand for his reason for breaching her systems. "You wouldn't have even listened to my explanation. Even Bruce would at least listen to the idea."

Gordon sputtered angrily, while everyone but Father began to laugh. It was a little frightening, how Drake could be so different depending on where he was. In the manor, he was quieter, and sometimes uneasy, despite how much affection and pride the others showed him. As Robin he was strong, confident, and more manipulative than the others. In the outside world, he was a suave though fragile genius.

If only he could show Damian the secret, so Damian could play those roles, could become exactly what was needed, so the younger boy could earn the same respect, pride, love.

"Still thinking about your alter ego, Brat?" Todd called out, as Damian caught himself adjusting his posture to see if he could fit into a little boy's skin. "He was talking about finding his alter ego, after watching Bruce, Dick, and Tim charm the world yesterday."

"I do not see why you think it is a joke," Damian glared. "I want to be a part of my Father's life work, so I must learn a role to play like you all do."

"We do not always play roles," Grayson protested.

Drake snorted. "You are never not playing a role, Dick. Just because you really believe what you are saying at the time, doesn't mean it's not a mask. We all have our roles... you're the performer, Jason's the resentful street kid, Cass is the disabled girl, Steph's the ditzy blond, Bruce is the inane rich bachelor, Babs is the bitter cripple."

"Wow, thanks for that," Brown laughed.

"Well, what about you? What is your role?" Todd asked, lazily stretching as he stood up.

"I'm the ambitious nerd," Drake replied. "Every role we take has a little bit of the real us in it. The idea is we expand on that, Dick embraces the limelight, even when he wants to hide. Jason could out talk any socialite, but he lets them think he's not well educated. Steph stumbles forward, despite everyone who says no. Cass ignores the world, and does not correct their misconceptions. I know what my mind can do, so I show it off."

"Sometimes, you scare me," Todd laughed. "Obviously you get this more than anyone else. You should help Damian find that bit of him to expand."

That was a bitter pill for both boys. Damian recoiled and went to sneer, but Drake beat him to the punch.

"I don't think he would appreciate that. Besides, it's obvious what role he should play."

"Do share," Todd laughed.

"I would prefer to end this meeting amicably."

Drake walked away then, leaving the rest to stare after him. For a moment, it was a relief to have him gone. Damian bit his lip. As soon as he was out the door, the younger boy wanted to call Robin back, and ask him to tell what he saw in Damian. He could not. It was one thing to live as inferior to Drake, and another to have to acknowledge the teenager's superiority.

"Tt," the preteen snorted, "he must not have any idea of who I am."

Unfortunately, none of those present believed his words for an instant. Everyone looked knowingly at him. He ducked his head, clenching his fists. There had to be a better way than asking his rival for help.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**

**I've decided to finish posting this story this week, before the holidays start, so I will be posting two chapters per day.**


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Nineteen**

**Tim**

With every selfish fiber of his body, Tim wished Damian had not come. For a year, Tim had felt wanted and secure. Bruce was willing to protect Tim from everything. Even now, none of that had changed. Everyone treated Tim nearly the same, and even the changes were gentle, his family trying to make sure he knew he still had a place despite Damian.

Bruce had offered to send Damian away, instead of Tim.

They all seemed to know how selfish Tim was, but were so afraid of what Tim could do, that they were willing to let him be selfish. It had been a hard realization. Tim had never considered himself selfish before. He had not become Robin to please himself. To be honest, he had had nightmares even before he took up the suit. Everyone believed he had jumped at the chance. They forgot he had seen the same things they had, behind his camera. There was a thrill, of course, and the confidence of being Robin was amazing.

He had been given a home he had not expected, had been protected, finally a real boy. Damian threatened all of it, and the worst part was, Damian and Tim were alike. They were both wanting the same place, the same affection and respect, the same family. They were both selfish and arrogant, certain of their capabilities, certain of their rights.

Perhaps that was why his parents had never wanted him. He just took from them. He had never tried hard enough to be what they needed. No wonder they could not be real parents.

Maybe there was a chance for Damian. Bruce was his father. Bruce was not perfect, but he would never abandon, forget, or torment a child. To have Bruce as his real dad, would make Damian a real boy. Talia had made a fake son, but -

"Bruce!" Tim leapt off his bed and ran for the stairs. Bruce was probably in the cave.

"Where is the fire?" Jason called when Tim swung past him. "Tim?"

It seemed every member of his family was in his path. Steph and Dick were hanging from the banisters, Cass was hanging up her jacket, even Damian was in the study, reading. For some reason, they all decided to follow him. Which probably was not a great idea. Or maybe it was. They might all need to prepare.

"Tim?" Bruce suddenly was in front of him at the bottom of the stairs into the cave. He caught Tim's shoulders. "What happened?"

"Nothing happened. It's what's going to happen. It's not a secret that Damian was out with the bats the other night. I can't see Talia being pleased about that. I think she's probably already on her way here."

Damian went pale.

"Crap," Dick said. "You're right."

"What is Damian's legal status here?" Jason asked.

"Talia's papers indicated it was joint custody, but Bruce had it quietly changed to primary custody due to unrest in his mother's country," Tim answered.

"Not like Talia is going to care about that anyway. It's just a piece of paper to her."

"Father," Damian said. "If she comes, what does that mean?"

Several beats of silence. Tim needed to double check that Talia was on his search program. Babs had threatened to lock him out, but it had only been a threat, once she got a look at the program, she had grudgingly admitted it was a work of art. Would Ra's himself get involved?

"It means we are going to need to prepare. She can't just come and take you. I promised you would not go back."

Everyone nodded in agreement, as if it had ever been in question. Did Damian really think Bruce would give him over just to avoid a battle with the League? They had fought against the League during attempted assassinations of men and women who had done terrible things. Of course, they would fight for a kid whose head was messed up by how he was raised.

**Cass**

Wayne Manor was not ill prepared for invasion in the first place, so the earnestness to prepare was a little overboard, but it eased the tension in Damian's face. It was the confusion that came over Damian, once Tim ran for his computer that made Cass pause.

A word from Tim would have gotten Damian sent to the Gotham Penthouse, could have turned Jason against Damian after their bonding moment, could even have destroyed the boy's pride. It was unlikely it would happen now, when they had seen Damian's arrogance was concealing terror, his anger concealing jealousy, but for a time, Tim had had the power to cut Damian out of the family.

Any one of them would have jumped to it, if Tim had given the word.

Tim was tired and afraid of Damian, but he had not spoken that word. It was not as if he had not known. Jason, Bruce, and Cass had all made the offer. Yet here he was, working to help Damian stay.

"What is it, Cass?" Dick asked, as Jason and Stephanie headed into the training room with Damian. She glanced up at their big brother with a soft smile.

"Tim is good."

"Yeah. He's the smartest of us all."

She smiled larger and did not bother to correct him.

Dick hurried to join those training, but Cass went into the computer bay. Her first brother was scrolling through his program, looking for something. It was Cass's place to stand with him. Tim would find his answers.

**Damian**

Drake was right.

Drake was right, and Damian did not know if he should be furious that his rival had seen the big picture first, or grateful that the teenager had realized that Mother would come. It would have been a dangerous thing for him to be unprepared. Had Mother come and seen Damian surprised, seen how learning about family from Dick and Stephanie had distracted him, the disgust at his failure would be dreadful.

It had been Drake who figured out her alias, giving them her route of arrival and the time frame.

As Mother's limo pulled into Wayne Manor's grounds, a couple days later, Damian stood on the foyer with Father and his family. Father and Grayson were on either side of him, and Brown was leaning on Grayson's shoulder. Todd, Cain, and Drake were a bit to the side, Drake in silent attention, while Todd played with a throwing star, and Cain glared at the limo. Damian remembered his arrival a few months back, when Father had stood with the strays, looking suspiciously down at Damian and his Mother.

He felt safer on this side. Even if he made a mistake, Father and Grayson would still stand with him, and they would show him how to improve. He did not have to be perfect to stay with them.

"Talia," Father greeted. She was wearing a pant suit, with simple flats. It was her outfit for when she might have to fight, but had to play a public role. "What brings you here this time?"

"Don't tell me you have another brat?" Todd groaned dramatically. His voice was nearer than Damian expected, and when the preteen looked around, he discovered that even the other three were closed in around him.

"Be silent, Jason. I cared for you while you were under my father's roof. You owe me," Mother answered.

"I could have done without the Lazarus Pit," Jason sneered in return. "And the lies about how Bruce so easily replaced me."

"We all know Timothy is far better than you in your heroic lifestyle."

"I wouldn't be standing here, part of this family, if he wasn't better."

"Enough, I am not here to banter with your rats, Bruce. I am here because you allowed Damian out in your world. No doubt his skills were useful to you, but my intent was not to give you a readymade partner," Mother replied. "Damian will be coming home with me."

Father allowed a few moments of silence before stepping forward, putting Damian slightly behind him.

"No, Talia. You don't get to drop him off and take him as you wish. He's not a toy for your whims."

Mother laughed. Damian leaned slightly into Grayson's side.

"There is enough evidence that he made a play for your favorite. Robin was rather silent for a few weeks. I know you, Bruce. Timothy has become your favorite, your right hand. Damian never had a chance of convincing you he was worthy of you."

Damian could not breathe. She had known? She had sent him here, telling him he could win his father's respect and affection if he could defeat his strays, but had known he would not succeed. It was all just a game, a way to disrupt Father's life, not let Damian take his rightful place.

Was he just a pawn between his parents now?

"Yes, Damian hurt Timothy," Father said quietly, causing Damian and Drake to tense up, wondering what he would say next. "He believed that all my orders not to go after the others were actually meant to spur him on. That is what you did, telling him one thing while wanting another. When he thought he had failed you and me, he believed you would send him away if he returned in failure."

"Of course, I would send him away. He would need time to think, lessons to learn, without being distracted by my plans."

Grayson's hand came up to Damian's shoulder.

"That is why I won't give him back, Talia."

"I'm his mother, Bruce. You won't be able to keep him from me."

"He's not going back with you."

Mother stiffened and paced a few steps before looking up the stairs at Damian. The little space between her brows that wrinkled when she was upset or surprised was lowering at him. Damian wasn't sure if she was surprised or just upset. It seemed to him that she had not expected Father's refusal. Considering that Father took in a variety of other children, that he would accept his blood son despite the way he was raised seemed to be obvious.

"Damian, it's time to go. Your Father is clearly unworthy of you."

Todd and Grayson snorted.

"I wish to stay, Mother," Damian said softly, tightening his hands into his fists. He would make friends with Drake, if it meant he could stay with Father, where he did not have to succeed at every task to earn affection, where Grayson, Brown, and Father would hug him.

"It is not your choice. I am your Mother. I raised you. You owe me everything."

"Children don't owe their parents for raising them!" Stephanie exclaimed. "They don't have to be what you want them to be. He's not some mindless extension of your will. You're as stupid and delusional as others."

Drake's parents hung in the air. They too had wanted Drake only as a useful tool. In one way, Damian owed Drake, since the rest were prepared to help him, because of Drake's experiences.

"Be silent, foolish child. You have less right than anyone to speak here," Mother snapped. Damian bristled, furious that Mother would put Stephanie down. She was the one who woke him when he was sleep walking, who made his nightmares go away in the dead of night. She had seen more of Damian's fears and weaknesses than even Grayson had.

"I would say that was you. You are the one who made Dami believe he had to be perfect, just for you to look at him or touch him. You taught him he was owed everything, but only if he was exactly what you wanted. So, I think you don't have the right to speak here." Stephanie stepped forward, her fists clenched.

Mother tensed to fight, her servants starting to line up in preparation for battle. Around Damian, most of Father's family took their stances. Father and Drake did not even move.

"I would not stay long," Drake said mildly. "It appears your alias has been tied into the South American drug trade. It won't be long before the DEA and FBI are looking for you."

"Is this a bluff?" Mother demanded.

"Of course not. Your recent travels to Mexico and Brazil coincided with a shipment of drugs that hit Gotham two weeks ago. Tim happened to get the shipment flagged, so when we saw where you were traveling, we had to let the authorities know," Father answered.

Several beats of silence ended, when Mother gave the signal for the servants to prepare to leave. She stood at the bottom of the stairs glaring up at Father and Drake.

"This isn't over, Bruce. I'll take it to the international courts if I have to."

"Your Father would never allow you to bring that kind of attention to his family. As of two months ago, Damian is legally in my sole custody."

Grandfather would never allow mother to draw attention to them, even with aliases. Not for something like this. Grandfather was powerful, but he was powerful from the shadows. Father would get the limelight shining on any legal custody battle.

"This isn't over," Mother promised, before she returned to her car.

"I would not expect it to be," Father said softly, as the limo pulled away.

"It would be nice to be in on the plans," Todd complained, as they turned to enter the manor.

"We only pieced this together this morning," Father answered, resting one hand on Damian's shoulder and the other on Drake's. "Most of you were either in bed or not even home."

**Dick**

"Would there really have been a fight if Father and Drake had not made mother visible to the authorities?" Damian enquired gravely, in the afternoon of the same day Talia had come.

"Of course. We aren't letting you go," Dick answered, ruffling the boy's hair. Damian scowled and backed away. He was picky about when and how he could be touched. Only Stephanie knew what was said during Damian's night terrors, but Dick had soon figured some of the boy's triggers out. Despite the knowledge that physical abuse had been a part of Damian's training, and he had certainly been kept secluded by Talia, the hardest thing for Dick to deal with was the clear lack of physical touch.

Bruce and Tim were similar, but both used to Dick's easy affection. Although Bruce's came from fear of letting people get too close, Tim's was more like Damian's. Touch, hugs, even simple pats on the shoulder had been rare, while the same hands had been used to punish for things the boys could not anticipate. Dick did not know how he had failed to see this as a sign of abuse in Tim's home.

"Why did Drake help? We aren't friends. We don't talk, much less do things together."

"That's easy," Dick beamed. "You are family, even if you don't like each other, even if you hurt each other."

"I have heard you all mention how Drake was the one who stopped Father from harming himself, after Todd's death. Todd has also said Drake helped him get rid of the worst effects of the Pit. I do not understand."

Dick placed a gentle hand at Damian's back and guided him towards the library. They had the manor to themselves and Alfred. Jason and Cass were out on Bat business, Steph and Tim were at school, and Bruce was playing Brucie at a golf meeting.

"After Jason died, Bruce and I grew further apart than ever. I didn't know what to say or do to him, and I did not realize how depressed Bruce had become. One-day Tim came to the Titans and demanded I return to being Robin."

**Damian**

He sat in his room, supposed to be doing his school work, but unable to concentrate on it after Grayson's story about how Drake had saved Batman. Everyone had talked about it as if it was obvious, but Damian had only known Mother's story about how Father had taken on another Robin. He had not known the full story.

It was clear Damian would never measure up to Drake in their eyes. He would always be the little assassin, arrogant and wrong. It would not make them send him away, but Drake would always be better. Until now, Damian had believed he had to show how different he was from Drake to be noticed as the better. Perhaps it was the opposite.

Brown had once said she enjoyed the fact that she had to work harder to keep up with the rest. It made her grow stronger, better, smarter. Under Grayson's instruction, she was becoming a better fighter. She was becoming more like Nightwing.

There was certainly no way Damian could become Grayson. Their personalities were too different, and Damian's fighting style was very different. Drake on the other hand was more similar, perhaps because they had both been raised to be tools for their parents. Their fighting styles were different, but neither was as flamboyant as Nightwing. It would be easier to turn his blunt force into Drake's tighter and more subtle skills.

When he had observed his rival earlier, he had been looking for weakness. Now he had to find Drake's strengths and make them his own. Maybe then he would be worth as much to Father and Grayson.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**

**By the way there are twenty six chapters and an epilogue.**


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Twenty**

**Tim**

With the threat of Talia returning, life felt tenser than before. Tim was frustrated by the distraction, when he was in the middle of rebuilding the Titans on the weekends, and trying to hunt down several conmen who had gone missing. Dick and Jason believed they had moved on, but Tim thought it was odd how they so abruptly vanished. These two men and one woman had been running scams together for over a year, but within days of falling onto Robin's Radar, they were gone.

Traces of their lives led to one day, and then there was nothing about them. Most of their belongings were left behind, rents and debts were left unattended, even a Doctor Appointment and a date with their current mark were missed.

"Still looking for the Seversons?" Steph asked, as she and Damian emerged from the training room where Dick had been working with them.

"Yeah. The money trail is being elusive."

"They used cash a lot," Damian pointed out. "Grayson said that was very hard to track."

Ignoring the boy's smug, observant eyes, Tim tapped his stylus against his nose. Bruce had not decided to close the case, but had told Tim to do what he needed. This was not so rare anymore. Bruce let Tim handle many cases on his own. It was clear Bruce was of the same mind as Jason and Dick, but he was willing to let Tim figure out what was bugging Robin.

"Why do you continue with the case, when Father and Grayson believe it is not worth their time?" Damian demanded, stalking over to glare down at Tim's tablet. "What is making you so obsessive about a trio of two-bit cons?"

"They aren't two-bit cons for one. They stayed off the radar in Gotham for over a year. They have run very sophisticated cons here, but I have yet to discover others across the country, even though I know what to look for. They are too smooth, not to have done it before. Their disappearance is strange. Most cons I have shut down usually try to erase their traces before disappearing. Here we have bills, appointments, even an unfinished job."

For a moment, Tim forgot who he was talking too. A huff made him remember, and he glanced angrily at Damian. The boy was not looking at Tim, but down at the pad, where facial recognition scanned through security cam footage from the day the trio disappeared. He looked deep in thought.

"What do you care?" Tim tilted the tablet away from the kid.

"I am trying to figure it out before you do," Damian said bluntly.

"Do your own research then," the teenager snarled in return.

**Dick**

"Drake is completely obsessed with that case," Damian scowled, as Dick and he sat on the roof looking at the stars in a cool fall night. "No one else seems to think it's important."

"It probably is important," Dick answered. "We can't stop all crime, and we can miss things. Tim has an instinct for catching those things that slip by."

The twelve-year-old frowned, looking up at the sky, as if he could see the secret of why this bugged Tim. Dick let him think, hoping to learn why Damian had returned to observing Tim again. Cass was furious. Jason was ready to start sleeping in Tim's room again. They had valid concerns that Talia's appearance was some sort of signal to Damian, to proceed with another attack.

The eldest brother did not believe that was the case, but even he was on alert.

"You have all, even Father, said you did not see it, but none of you have made Drake stop. Isn't that a useless waste of his time if no one else is bugged by it?"

"If he had been proven wrong many times before, then yes, but Tim doesn't have a record of being wrong."

"Is this a family thing?" Damian sat up and demanded. "You let Drake do what he wants to teach him?"

Dick laughed.

"Oh, Dami, you aren't wrong that letting someone learn something through experience can be a good thing. That doesn't mean you can't protect them if they could be harmed by the experience. This instance is not one of those things. There is something in the disappearance of these three. To Tim, it has become more important to find out, but the rest of us have other cases we believe are more pressing."

With a huff, Damian dropped back onto his back. He glared at the sky.

"There are too many rules about family, and half of them contradict each other."

"They aren't rules," Dick explained. "It's ideas of how to be a family. Not all of them will work for everyone."

"That doesn't make sense. There should be something for every situation."

"People don't work like that. It's like... like fighting. If I spar with Bruce, I must be quicker and hit harder, but if I spar with Tim, I should be slower and watch him for tells more than anyone else. So, Steph and Jason and Cass all need and want hugs all the time, but you and Bruce and Tim need to have more warning, so you understand it isn't a bad thing."

Damian's scowl turned into a thoughtful twist of his lips. Pleased with how serious he was taking the conversation, since Jason or Tim would turn it into a joke, Dick let him think.

"Do you need to be hugged a lot?" The boy asked, in an embarrassed tone.

Dick blinked and had to keep from bursting into laughter. It would be easy to turn it into a joke about Octopus Dick, but the question was very quiet and worried. This was Damian at his most sincere and vulnerable.

"My parents hugged me all the time. When I woke up, when I left the trailer for anything, before a performance, when we made it to our trailer for dinner at the end of the night, before bed. It was the hardest thing about living with Bruce. He didn't hug. I think he was too hurt.

"I demanded to be hugged and eventually I conditioned Bruce to be more physically affectionate. It started out for me, because I was missing my parents, but I saw Bruce grow happier the more I hugged him. Everyone grew happier, even if they thought I was just being silly. So, I do want hugs, but giving them out is just as good as getting them, so I don't need them."

Damian was silent for so long, Dick wondered if he had fallen asleep. He let Damian be, knowing that sleeping or thinking would be best without further talk. It was cool out, so eventually he would have to bring the boy inside. There were those who said Richard Grayson could not be silent, but they were wrong. He loved to talk, but silence was not uncomfortable.

When Damian moved, sitting up, Dick turned to look at him with a smile, sitting up himself, aware they should probably head in. Everyone else was on patrol, and Alfred could use a hand. As he began to rise, Damian crawled the couple feet between them and sat in front of the surprised older brother, face twisted in concentration. Dick held still, letting him think.

Then he leaned forward, wrapping small arms around Dick's broad, muscular chest. Dick gently wrapped his own arms around the smaller body, letting Damian dictate how close they were and how long the embrace lasted. After two heartbeats Damian broke away, and raced for the window. He scrambled through. As Dick followed him, he heard Damian's race to his bedroom.

**Bruce**

"He's watching, not attacking," Bruce said calmly, as Jason paced in front of his desk again. "It is nothing none of you have not done. I don't know what Damian is looking for, by watching Tim. He uncovered the worst things that could be used before he attacked him."

"I still don't like it. Plus, Tim is distracted by the Severson case. It would be an opportunity."

Bruce sighed as he raised a brow at Jason.

"What opportunity? Damian is usually with Dick, and you are usually with Tim. I believe you are still working on the extortion ring in Leslie's neighborhood. Has that stalled since Tim became so focused on the missing conmen?"

Jason threw up his hands and stalked out, complaining about deaf dad's and precocious little brothers, with a host of names for the extortionists he had undertaken to find months before. Despite his irritation with Jason's irritation, Bruce never tired of the close relationship between Jason and Tim. Because of Tim's awe of Dick, the teenager never fully allowed himself to be Tim with Dick. Jason, on the other hand, had needed Tim's hard work to manage the exacerbating madness of the Lazarus pit.

Like Bruce himself, Jason's need had made Tim more open with them. He had had to save them from themselves. Their imperfectness had made it easier for him to approach.

Bruce could only enjoy his silent study for the few minutes it took to finish Bruce Wayne's emails to Lucius Fox. He then had to head down to the cave as well.

Damian was sitting on the bottom steps, staring at the busy cave. On the lowest level, Jason was shouting something about his bike, while Cass watched him unmoved. Steph and Dick were in the lab, their chatter escaping into the main room, where Tim was in front of a computer bay, scrolling through his files. Bruce paused by Damian to study the boy's demeanor and focus. He was watching Tim closely, but there seemed no threat.

"I'm the link?" Tim suddenly shouted, leaping away from his computer. He turned around, eyes wide with shock. "I'm the link."

"What are you talking about?"

"Each of their last three cons is connected to me. The first was Mrs. Macintyre's sons. They were tricked into donating money to a false charity."

"That was the Baptist Church? A lot of people gave money," Bruce replied. Tim ignored him.

"The second was the teachers of Brentwood school, being tricked into buying into real estate that didn't exist."

"That's the school your parents sent you to a couple years back? More than they were tricked," Jason pointed out.

"The last con they successfully pulled was on Mr. Prinz, my father's former CFO. They got him to purchase fake diamonds. That's the one that eventually led me to figure out who was involved."

Bruce frowned, no longer able to consider it a coincidence. This was worrying. To target people like that meant they were targeting the Drakes, and possibly Robin. No wonder it had bothered Tim.

"So why did they leave?"

"I don't know. Something... Jason, the extortion ring, who do we know they've hit?"

"The clinic, the youth center, the shelter, a liquor store, the dinky Museum about the Circus, the martial arts dojo, and that tech repair shop..."

"That's part of this too. Something else... has Cluemaster explained how he got past security, how he even knew Stephanie came to the gala?"

"No," Dick said softly.

"So, what is it? How is all this connected?" Steph asked

"I'm not sure, but I think... this is a test, or a trap. I..." Tim stopped and stood still. "I think, Talia may have something to do with it."

He dove for his computer again, bringing up the security logs for his parents' empty house. "I think they're hiding on my parents' grounds."

**Stephanie**

Cass and Damian stayed behind, but everyone else accompanied Tim, in full suit, to the empty, locked house. The moment they were in the yard they knew someone had been there. The security had been circumvented. Since Tim no longer lived there, it had not been checked often.

Steph and Jason both reached to stop Tim, but he dodged and ran for the house.

Steph had only been there a few times, since the Drakes had disapproved of her. After being locked up for a year, the covered furniture looked foreboding. Knowing that Tim had been lonely and hurt here gave the house a dark feel. Jason rested his hand on her shoulder, since everyone knew not to touch Tim when he was so focused.

No one spoke as Tim examined each room. The kitchen had been disturbed. Dick bagged the three glasses left in the sink. When they headed upstairs, Tim stopped at a hallway end table that had been uncovered. A picture of the three he had been searching for sat there.

Every upstairs room was locked, except for Tim's old bedroom. Tim nearly went in without checking for traps, but Bruce finally stopped him, while Dick and Jason did the examination. The room was bare of everything but a TV table that had been moved in. There was a glass vase filled with a green liquid, a green flower the only plant.

"That's the pit," Jason exclaimed, flinching away from it.

"Get back, now!" Cass growled into their comms.

**Cass**

Damian stiffened when he saw the image through Bruce's cowl cam.

Cass saw it out the corner of her eye and spun around to where the boy was standing, arms crossed, and face dark. He knew what that was. Something was wrong.

"That's the pit!" Jason exclaimed.

"Get back, now!" Cass yelled, before spinning around again and grabbing Damian by the shoulder. "What do you know? What is that? Is this your mother?"

He shook his head minutely, the fury and jealousy suddenly mingling with fear. Cass grabbed his throat, threatening him.

"It's not Mother! It's Grandfather." He shouted.

She recoiled from him, recognizing he was stunned. The implications of it being Ra's, and not Talia, frightened her more than anything else in her young life. She had been raised to be the deadliest, greatest assassin in history, she had run into the service and the family of the smartest, greatest man of his generation, she had faced some of the greatest warriors in the world, but nothing scared her more than finding her brother had attracted the personal attention of the Demon's Head. Damian was furious that Tim had been given this, perhaps having expected it himself, but enough of him belonged to Bruce and Dick that there was also fear.

**Jason**

Tim was the only one not watching every shadow as they headed back to the cave. It would have been hard for him to, since the other four had surrounded him. A vague understanding, that the whole scam and extortion cases had been a test from Ra's, made Jason more nervous than the sight of the pit waters. The test was for Tim. The only other person Jason knew that had attracted such attention from Ra's, was Bruce himself.

They all knew Bruce was on a whole other level mentally, even compared to some of his children. Only Tim could match wits with the Bat on a regular basis. It was why the grown vigilantes, Dick, Jason, and Babs still put themselves under the Bats authority. Certainly, they all had their moments where they could out think Bruce, but it was only Tim who could follow Bruce's silent leaps of logic. It was only Tim who could speak out against the Bat's plans regularly, and have the Bat stop to listen.

Rogues and allies alike had noticed the difference in this Robin. Tim even had a few Rogues who targeted him, instead of the Bat. This, this was a whole different ball game. This was not just a Gotham Rogue, this was the head of a worldwide terrorist organization.

This was the man who tricked Bruce into believing Jason was dead for over two years.

"Pillow Party tonight?" Jason suggested. As they reached one of the entry points into the cave, Tim glared half-heartedly.

"I don't think there will be a choice in the matter tonight," Stephanie answered, bluntly. Dick was talking softly over the comms, to Oracle. With a glance backwards at Tim, Bruce headed for his computer bay. This was a large matter for more than just Gotham. The Justice League would be put on alert, the European, Asian, and African superheroes would be put on an alert. Maybe even South America and Oceania.

Jason slung his arm around the shorter teenager who looked like he wanted to dart for his computer bay.

"Take a moment to think, Tim," He said softly. "Ra's used Dick and me as pawns. Even what he did with me was more about disrupting Batman, than turning me into one of his soldiers. This is something different. This is dangerous territory."

Tim frowned for a few moments, staring at the back of Bruce's head. As interesting, and disturbing, as it was to see how tense the Bat's shoulders were, they were just a fuzzy focus point as Tim thought. Jason could see the same tenseness in everyone's features.

This was big. Jason tugged Tim closer, but had to let it be a brief hug, a silent oath to the little brother. Tim squirmed away, heading for Damian, curiosity, anger, and resentment on his face.

**Damian**

If there was anything that could have made Damian more jealous of Drake, this was it. Grayson, Brown, and Father had helped see that it was normal that Drake was closer to Father. Drake had been with him for almost four years now and Damian only five months. The preteen had almost been ready to let that slide.

Now, again, Damian hated Drake more than anyone, anything in the world.

Now it was not only Father and Father's family choosing Drake over Damian, now it was Grandfather offering Drake an important position. Mother would never dare challenge Grandfather. Damian had failed her plans anyway. Drake had the attention of Damian's Father and Mother.

It was not fair.

"What does this test mean?" Drake demanded. "The green rose obviously is something about a new beginning or a new life. What does the Demon's Head want with me?"

The worst part of all, was that Drake did not even realize what he had done. He had no idea that he had taken every single place that should have been Damian's. To him, this was something unusual to be investigated, something dangerous to be approached cautiously. And, it was dangerous. Grandfather had not lost the Demon's Hand Invitee for three or four generations.

It was something originally meant for Father. Mother had always spoke as if it would come to Damian, since Father had no desire for the role. Now even that was not true. Mother had lied, again.

"The Demon's Head has chosen you as his next protégé, to become the Demon's Hand, the second place in the League," Damian said dully, not daring to voice the fury that was coursing through his blood, tensing his limbs.

"Why me? He already asked me to join and I said no," Drake looked irritated. Of course, he would not appreciate the power he was being offered. He could not even see that his refusal meant nothing. Grandfather wanted Drake. This, this could get very dangerous.

"He thinks you are still of a malleable age. By the time he was ready to offer this to me, I had flagrantly disowned and damned the league," Father spoke up. "He thinks if he gets you now, he won't run into the same stubbornness he did with me."

"So how do I let him know he's delusional?"

Damian choked, half in shock, half in amusement. No one in the league dared talk about Grandfather at all. Here was the brilliant boy chosen to serve Grandfather as second in power, and he called the Demon's Head delusional. Drake would not serve Grandfather.

Drake was going to die.

"As far as I know, there is no way to officially decline. Ra's has spoken, so he believes that is the end of the matter."

Father looked troubled, Grayson looked troubled, everyone was filled with the trouble coming upon them. Damian should have felt completely elated. Drake would not serve Grandfather, which meant Grandfather would kill Drake, which meant Damian would have the place in Father's home he wanted. Only, the boy felt dread. There was a reason Grandfather had not managed to get rid of Father. Battle was coming.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	21. Chapter Twenty One

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Twenty-One**

**Bruce**

"It is now confirmed that the young vigilante known as Spoiler, is working with the Batman. Stephanie Brown, who had created the alter ego to get her father's crimes noticed, told our reporter in an interview that she was glad her mask was being used for something more than a teenager's angry rebellion. While Miss Brown is believed to know who is now using the Spoiler Identity, last year's Vigilante Protection Act means she could be held liable for sharing that information.

"The VPA was passed just last year after a five-year journey through the House and Senate, being vetoed once by the President, but finally passed after a second round in Congress. It went into effect earlier this year. Miss Brown is now a ward of Bruce Wayne's after the release of her father, Arthur Brown, from prison. Mr. Brown, who has used Cluemaster as a cover, tried to kidnap his daughter from the Kane Autumn Gala a couple weeks ago.

"In other news, the long-waited college game between Gotham U's Knights, and Metropolis's Titans is expected to gather its usual vast crowd..."

Well, that went smoother than expected. Video footage of Cass's half reveal of Spoiler was all over the internet, Stephanie had given the appropriate vague, ditzy answers in the interview, and the public was eating it up. Someone had snidely suggested Bruce Wayne was bound to end up with a vigilante if he kept adopting kids, but for the most part, the public had sympathy and praise for Stephanie in her struggles with her father's crimes, and her courage in 'giving' Spoiler away.

And somehow Aunt Kane had not had a fit. She had simply sighed and asked him to be more cautious in choosing his next child. Of course, learning that Bruce had a blood son had pleased her. All in all, the Gala was not the debacle it could have been.

Crystal Brown was moving out of rehab soon. Bruce wanted her to live in the manor, afraid she would easily fall into old habits if she was on her own. She had refused, and there had been some stress because of the publicity after Arthur's kidnap attempt, and the public revelation that her daughter had invented a Vigilante Identity that was now under the Bat's Name. Jason had come up with the solution, pointing out that the historical manor had a sort of Gatehouse, a small, empty cottage right behind the gate into the estate.

Crystal had accepted that. A significant effort had gone into getting it ready. With his concerns for his younger two sons and the al Ghuls, it had been a relief to have Stephanie's life settling down. So of course, when the catalyst came, it started with her.

Both alerts hit the Bat-network within minutes. Tim's alert came first by a minute, because his Threat Protocol Program was designed to keep track of the dangers specific to the Bats and Wayne's. Oracles was a minute later, as hers was designed to find the greater dangers to Gotham. Bruce was in his Wayne Enterprises office, although he was using his Bat-network tablet to hack A.R.G.U.S. to see what they had on the League of Assassins.

PRIORITY ONE ALERT! BLACKGATE BREAK OUT, CLUEMASTER AMONG THE MISSING INMATES!

In the morning on a school day, Stephanie and Tim would be in school. Since Tim would have received the alert fist, Stephanie probably already knew. Bruce shut down the tablet, aware the aborted hack would be caught by Amanda Waller's team. Despite her frustration that the VPA had passed, Waller had taken it in surprising good grace. She would lodge a complaint with the league, but send Bruce information in thanks for the test of her systems.

"Julie, Arthur Brown might have escaped prison. I have to go get Stephanie and Tim from school," Brucie Wayne said to the elderly secretary, who had worked for his mother and insisted Bruce needed her when he took his place in the company. There were about five or six men and women who had been with the company since Bruce was born, all of who believed they owed it to their kind bosses to mother and father their son even into his later thirties.

"Of course, dear," she exclaimed. She had been the only person who had been certain Bruce adopting Dick would be a good idea from the start. All his children loved Julie, though it was known that Dick was her favorite. "I'll reschedule your meetings, and let Mr. Fox know."

LEVEL TWO ALERT! CLUEMASTER CONFIRMED MISSING FROM BLACKGATE PRISON.

Oracle's alert hit as he ran down the stairs.

On the smart phone connected to the Bat Network, Oracle, Robin, and Spoiler's icons lit up. The overawed valet who brought Bruce's car out caught the relief on Bruce's face. In the five minutes Bruce took to get out of the high rises, and onto the back road that would get him to Gotham Academy the quickest, Nightwing, Phoenix, Batgirl, Agent A, and the icon shaped like a baby with a small bat symbol (Cass's idea) also lit. They were all safe.

Commissioner Gordon's obligatory call came as Bruce entered the campus grounds.

"I take you already know," Jim said mildly at the brusque answer.

"Of course. I have people paid to keep me informed of any possible threat," Brucie answered quietly. It was possible Jim knew that was a lie, but the Commissioner let out a soft breath, the sad sigh he gave when dealing with Bruce and a threat to the Wayne Family. After all, Jim Gordon's first meeting with Bruce Wayne had been to find the boy, only ten minutes after he became an orphan, kneeling, shuddering, wailing between the bloody bodies of his parents. Whatever Jim Gordon knew of the connection between the Bats and the Waynes, Bruce Wayne was the one he worried for in moments like these.

"It's been a quarter of an hour since he was spotted heading north," Gordon informed the father as Bruce doubled parked, ignoring the angry glare of the teacher he had blocked in. "I will have patrols doubled around your home."

"Thanks, Jim, I'm at the school so I need to go find Stephanie and Tim," Bruce replied. He was too well known for the security officer to stop his race into the school. Not for the first time, Bruce wished the pair of teens would have chosen the gated Gotham Private School. He barely noted Jim's good bye, ready to strangle Jack and Janet Drake for having sent Tim to Brentwood Prep School during the year he was thirteen, which had given Tim a disgust for Private school. Gotham Academy was a public school, but it was where the children of the rich and influential of Gotham went.

"Good Morning, Mr. Wayne," the school Principal said. "Mr. Drake informed us you would be coming. He and Miss Brown are in the Guidance Counselor's Office now."

Both Bruce and the polished Ms. Turney winced. Ms. Dost was a well-meaning woman, and had in fact guided Dick through high school without issue, but unfortunately, her attempts to help Tim had drawn his parents' notice. Since then Tim had become something of a nuisance to her. Principal Turney had said something once to Bruce, having caught the signs of an abused child in the belligerent, arrogant way Tim ran rough shod over Ms. Dost. They had come to a mutual understanding that it was a good thing that Tim acted out this way when he was removed from his abusers.

Tim was sullenly slumped on the chair outside the office, apparently playing on his phone, while Stephanie had undertaken to distract the Counselor. Everyone knew the only reason Tim was angry with her, was because he had not yet admitted he was safe to be angry with his parents. When Tim smiled at Bruce, Ms. Turney got the familiar curious look, mingled with the embarrassment that she had initially accused Bruce of being the abuser. Until he was no longer under the Drakes roof, Tim had never presented more than a shy, intelligent child to the school. So, the sudden acting out, minor as it was, had been noticed by the Counselor and the Principal.

The chagrin in Tim's face was noticeable only to his paternal figure. He hated the fact that he failed to control his anger, and that it had brought about more attention from the school. He hated the understanding with which Ms. Turney and Ms. Dost treated his occasional argumentative conversation. Outside of Wayne Manor, this was the only place Tim had ever failed to play the role he wanted.

"Hey Bruce," Tim greeted, staying slumped down. "I could have driven us home."

"Stephanie could too, but its ten minutes of public road, and we don't know where Arthur Brown is, or what he knows about Stephanie's routine," Bruce said, in a mild, worried Brucie tone. To be honest, picking them up was not necessary, but Brucie Wayne was known to be a little paranoid about the safety of his family. It was perfectly understandable to the public, though his children knew this was a genuine part of the public persona of Bruce Wayne.

"Bruce!" Stephanie emerged from the counselor's office, with the look of awed delight that came out whenever Bruce did something she had longed for but never expected. "Ms. Dost has three cats and one of them is going to have a litter of kittens!"

The notion, becoming familiar, that Stephanie was far more like Dick than Jason, rose to mind. Dick had begged for a pet, though none of the other three had ever given thought to the idea. Due to the nagging guilt, even six months after she was safe, he felt inclined to give way to the unspoken request. The best part? Stephanie was comfortable enough now to play on his guilt to get what she wanted. Her fears that he would change his mind were almost gone.

Dick would be shocked, because Bruce had never given way to his requests for a pet.

If he could keep her safe, keep Tim and Damian safe, he was willing to let all six of his children have pets. The powerful relief that flooded him to see his cheerful, loud daughter safe and smiling, despite the escape that put her in danger again, pushed him forward and he wrapped his arms around her. The tension in her shoulders melted as she leaned against his shoulder.

**Stephanie**

Despite her knowledge that she could defend herself against her furious father, Stephanie could not even be offended by the immediate way she was surrounded by all her siblings the moment they were all safe in Wayne Manor. Even Damian grabbed hold of her the moment she was in the door. It was a protective gesture, like the way most of them had camped out in Tim's room for the last two nights since the discovery that Ra's Al Ghul wanted him. Or like the way all of them had worked to make life difficult for Talia Al Ghul's various identities.

"Bruce," Tim said softly as he left the Robin embrace. He showed something to Bruce, and Stephanie wanted to know what it was. Bruce went still, his face darkening. "I think it's Talia, not Ra's."

"What is Mother doing?" Damian demanded.

Tim hesitated, looking at Bruce with a plea for help, but Bruce was in planning mode and did not pause to enlighten his curious children. Stephanie frowned, a little worried. Damian was angry that his grandfather had passed him over, just to give Tim the offer. Yet, his latest night terror, from just the night before, had been about Tim dying and the family falling apart.

"Talia is the one who picked Arthur up," Tim murmured. "She's on her way here, right now."

"No," Damian gasped, and looked up at Stephanie with naked terror in his eyes. He let her arm go and backed away.

"Father..." he stammered, but could not finish the sentence.

Bruce, almost too deep in Batman mode, paused at the door, caught on the tone for a moment. He took another step, nearly leaving them, but it finally connected which child had cried for him in terror. Batman retreated to the back of Bruce's mind, letting the father turn to the terrified twelve-year-old. Jason caught Stephanie's arm, not letting her go to the boy. She glared at him, but he shook his head.

"Damian?" Bruce asked softly.

"She wants you to choose," the boy replied, his eyes dropping. "She will make you choose between me and Stephanie."

"Oh, no, Damian," Stephanie cried, trying to escape Jason's grasp. "No!"

**Damian**

Damian knew Father could not choose him over the others. Dick was his first success, Todd was his miracle, Cain was his best, Drake was his favored, and Stephanie was his near failure. After Damian had failed to understand Father did not want him to attack Drake, Father could never choose Damian over the others. If it had been Todd or Drake, Damian would have been furious, would have hated them for that.

Only, Mother had gone after Stephanie. Stephanie who had let Damian cry in the night on her, when Mother would have scolded him for his weakness in succumbing to the nightmares, Stephanie who had promised not to let him go, Stephanie whose own father wanted to kill her. Every arrogant thought that as Father's blood, he had more right to be chosen than the others, felt like dust in the face of being chosen over her. Dick and Stephanie were too important. They were all better than Damian for Father.

Recently, after he joined them in stopping Cluemaster at the Gala, after the whole family had come together to stop Mother from taking Damian back, the boy had begun to believe he could have the place, that one day he would stand with the young men and women father had taken in, and belong with them. Recently he believed he might really be forgiven his failures. Before Grandfather's offer, Damian had even tried to figure out how to be like Drake. He had forgotten that Mother always won.

"Ugh," Todd grunted, stumbling back as Stephanie slammed her elbow into his gut, escaping his grasp. She lunged across the room at Damian, and he flinched. After all she had done for Damian, of course she would be furious that he was what would put her in danger. He closed his eyes, aware he deserved whatever punishment she meted out.

"No, Damian, she can't make him choose!" Stephanie yelled. Damian opened his eyes in surprise. Instead of throttling him, she had grabbed him and was holding him close. "You aren't going back to her. I won't let go, remember."

"She'll help your father kill you if I don't go back," Damian replied.

"I think they'll have a hard time of that," Dick said. Damian looked around in surprise.

Cain was clenching her fists, but she was looking at the door, not at Damian. Drake and Todd were protectively behind Stephanie, while Father and Dick were behind Damian, but it was not to punish him. This was like when they had first realized what Grandfather wanted with Drake. They had surrounded him. To protect him.

Now they were around Damian and Stephanie, to protect them.

**Bruce**

They were his children. They did not belong to Sheila, or David, or Jack and Janet, or Arthur, or Talia. Jason, Cass, Tim, Stephanie, and Damian were all his. Dick belonged to him as much as he had belonged to his parents.

"Talia is almost here," Tim said softly.

Damian tensed again, terrified. Dick and Stephanie had broken into the walls Talia had built around the boy, had started to pull the child out of the assassin. Bruce wrapped his arms around Stephanie and Damian. The other four were pulling out their hidden gear, prepping, but for a minute Damian and Stephanie needed to know he was not giving either of them up.

"Ok," Stephanie said when she noticed Jason and Tim moving towards the door. "We better get ready to tell Talia off."

She held Damian's hand tightly when they went outside.

This time they were waiting at the bottom of the stairs, weapons drawn, ready for battle. Jason handed one of his hidden knives to Damian.

"We don't want to kill them, but you have the right to defend yourself," he told the boy seriously.

The vehicle stopped a few yards away and Talia, in full League gear, emerged. Four ninjas followed her. She stalked up to them, glaring as hard as she could at Tim. Bruce took a half step forward, putting himself between Tim and Talia.

"Give me Damian, Bruce. I won't let you keep him here!" Talia hissed, when they were barely five feet apart. "You already know what I have. You wouldn't dare risk the girl's life, not after how guilty you feel because of her. Cluemaster is under my control. I will make it my life mission to give her to him, if you do not give me my son."

Bruce had not had time to change out of the stiff business shirt, but as he rolled his sleeves up, he knew it would not matter much. It was odd that Talia only brought four with her. Certainly, she would be enough to handle for any one of them, but four ninjas against even two of his younger children was bad odds for the League. Dick or Jason or Cass could take all four on with ease by themselves. It would not be as easy for Tim, Stephanie, or Damian, but neither would it be impossible.

"You can't have him back, Talia. You've hurt him enough," Bruce replied. "Stephanie would never forgive me if I let you take him back. Brown will be caught soon enough. He's too arrogant to obey you for long."

"Bruce," Talia cried, clenching her fists, "Of course I hurt Damian. How else was I going to train him? You've done the same with your brats."

"I never beat them for failing a lesson. I never locked them in solitary because they wanted to have friends," Bruce shouted.

"Do you think I wanted to do that?" Talia shouted back. "Do you know how hard it was to have to turn my back on my son? Do you know how many nights I cried in silence, because if I dared show any of the terror for him that is in my heart, Father would take him away? You know how my father trains those with the will to be great. It would have killed the boy!"

"If that is true Talia, why would you take him away from me?"

"Because you are going to drag him into your war against Father! In time, his presence might have brought you back to me, and we could have been great together! But Father has chosen Timothy! Damian will not be involved in that war for a boy whose own parents didn't want him, who has taken everything that should have been Damian's."

"Enough Talia! I will fight your father for all my children. If you truly cared for Damian, you would stand here with me, and make your father stop! What good would him going back to you do, when you can't even show him your so-called affection?"

"Better a few beatings than death! We are running out of time, Bruce! Father has already put his plans into motion. Jack and Janet Drake are probably dead by this time. Father has sent more men than you and these six can stop! They aren't far away."

Tim stiffened.

"No," Talia cried, her attention going to her phone. "I need more time!"

"Inside, now!" Bruce ordered.

None of his children argued, turning to run back up the stairs. Bruce followed them. When he turned to slam the door, he saw the approaching horde of ninjas. Talia was screaming, begging her father to give her more time.

He slammed the door shut and locked it.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	22. Chapter Twenty Two

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

**Jason**

The armor in the Phoenix suit felt heavier than normal. Cass was the first one in her suit, adding the clawed gloves she only brought out for the worst fights. When Dick and Jason were dressed, Dick went searching for the black and gold hooded cape he and Stephanie had prepared for Damian's Christmas present. Damian already had an armored suit, but not a mask, as Bruce was not ready to let him on the streets.

"Has anyone turned Ra's down?" Tim asked softly, unaware Jason could hear him.

"Yes, but few live to tell," Damian answered, just as quietly. "I'm... sorry, Drake."

"Is Talia right about my parents?"

"I... don't know. It is possible."

"If I can't get out of this, Damian, Bruce might not be able to deal with it. I've left messages for everyone else, but I never made one for you. I need to tell you now, in case. Don't let your dad fall. I know it may not make sense to you, but if he acts in vengeance and kills, it will break him. It's his only sacred rule. Death cannot come at his hand. He tried to break it when Jason was lost, and it almost destroyed him," Tim took a deep breath.

"Are you giving up?" Damian demanded.

"I've never given up," Tim answered harshly. "But no matter what Bruce says, you can't have a plan for everything that might happen. I'm not without options, but Ra's is centuries old, and half insane because of the Lazarus Pit. I can't calculate everything he can do. If I can't, if I, if we can't stop Ra's, then you need to know Bruce will need help."

There was silence, and Jason was ready to march into the changing corner and make sure Damian had not attacked Tim, when Damian sucked in a deep breath. "I promise, Drake."

Playing with the flash bombs Tim and Jason had invented and called Phoenix bombs, Jason wanted to grab Tim and shake him. Of course, Robin had a plan for if he died, ready to force Bruce to move on no matter what.

"They're coming," Spoiler said, rolling the face mask down to her nose to show her domino.

"Here," Nightwing said, tossing her a pair of his eskrima sticks. "You're good enough to use these."

Alfred chambered a round in his shotgun.

Seven superhero vigilantes and their butler stood in their home base, shifting, stretching, preparing. Phoenix flicked the elector shocks in his gloves on. Robin rested the end of his bo staff on the floor, deceptively at rest. Spoiler swung the sticks around experimentally.

When the first wave of ninjas broke into the cave, they fell without one of the defenders needing to move. Two more groups attempted and failed before one of them figured out how to disarm the security system tasering them. Oracle was offline, probably jammed. Two swarms of ninjas made it into the cave from the stairs leading into the house, and by way of the vehicle exit.

Phoenix tossed his first handful of bombs towards the nearest groups feet.

**Damian**

Drake had never once shown Damian behind his mask on purpose. Not until tonight, when the Family stood together against the League of Assassins, when the variety of roles Drake played to trick the world fell away, and Damian Wayne met Timothy Drake. It was shocking to discover the person behind Robin, behind the teenage genius, behind the charming rich boy, was so earnest. It was terrifying and exalting to receive the request to keep Father sane in the event of Drake's death.

Guilt ate at Damian's stomach.

Gripping both the knife Todd had handed him earlier and the katana he still practiced with, Damian stood between Nightwing and Spoiler. Batman and Robin were already meeting the first wave of Grandfather's ninjas, while Phoenix was blinding the other group, and Batgirl had vanished into the smoke caused by the flash bombs.

Spoiler and Nightwing leapt forward side by side and Damian swung around to guard their backs. Despite the difference in length between the two blades, he discovered that the defensive training Grayson had ran Damian and Stephanie through was paying off. Certainly, there were differences in the weight, but as he blocked the variety of blades of their attackers with his two blades, he discovered that some of what Grayson taught could be translated into defense with the blades as well. He could not use all of it, since Spoiler and Nightwing were behind him.

"Damian!" Mother shouted, shoving her way through the fight. "Come on Damian! This isn't your fight!"

Damian ignored her, ducking as Nightwing spun around to slam the tenacious ninja determined to get at their backs. The slender person dropped to the ground out cold.

"We've got to find how they're jamming us," Nightwing told Spoiler and Damian. The three of them held the easiest position to defend, but also the hardest to escape from.

"Right," Spoiler replied, as they had a moment to breathe. Batgirl and Phoenix were clearing the stairs, while Batman and Robin seemed intent to get to the vehicle bay. Alfred had taken refuge in the door of the command room, and the ninjas ignored him, despite how his occasional shot never missed.

"Do you have a breather?" Nightwing demanded, as he grabbed Damian's shoulder.

"I stuck one in his pouch," Spoiler answered for him.

"We'll need it as soon as Batman or Robin hit the vehicle bay," Nightwing answered. "You two get to Phoenix and Batgirl. I'm going to get Alfred."

Nightwing lunged high towards the black garbed ninjas between him and Alfred, and they all braced to take him on. At the last second the acrobat dropped into a roll, slamming into locked knees. Spoiler swung the sticks again and nudged Damian.

"Think you can do the Robin special?" She said.

"Of course, but can you do your part?" Damian demanded. Spoiler snorted.

"Do you even weigh eighty pounds?" She laughed.

Damian flushed in irritation, but had to acknowledge his shorter, lighter stature was a positive thing here. Dick had invented the move, Todd's heavier, stockier build had forced him to modify it, while Drake had completely revamped it taking out the summersault Grayson loved, but still managing to pull the leap off. Batgirl would occasionally complete the leap as well, usually from behind Batman or Phoenix. While Spoiler had managed it in training, she had yet to try the Robin portion in a real fight. Since Damian was the only one smaller than her, she had never even tried to be the launching pad.

Spoiler laughed and leapt forward, striking out with the sticks as she planted her feet. Damian swung behind her as if to protect her back, but with enough room to instead completely turn around and grab her shoulders. He planted his foot on her backward extended shin, leapt up to rest his feet on the joints of her armor at her hips. Then he leapt, the armored cape Nightwing had attached to his shoulder's flaring out as he flew over her head. He did not use the flourishes of Grayson, so as gravity pulled him down again, he used his feet, and not his entire body, to collide with the surprised pair of ninjas.

They fell backwards, tripping another pair behind them, and he rolled forward, biting their shins with his blades. Pride filled his chest. He had done it. He had completed the signatory move of Robin.

"Let's go," Spoiler interrupted his moment of exultation, leaping forward to knock the next set aside. He leapt to his feet behind her, parrying the ninja who tried to get her back, hamstringing him effectually.

"BREACH PROTOCOL ENACTED," The cave's security system announced.

"Breather, now," Nightwing shouted.

Damian obeyed. As the small canister's mouth piece settled into place the vehicle bay doors slammed shut. By the time Spoiler and Damian reached Phoenix and Batgirl they had closed off the manor/cave entry. Batgirl grabbed Damian and shoved a pair of goggles over his eyes just before the vent above their heads shot out its spray of tear gas. Within seconds the ninjas were stumbling back, coughing, and rubbing their eyes desperately.

"Go," Phoenix commanded.

"This looks fun," Spoiler said and leapt back down the stairs. Batgirl followed, and the two girls slammed into the compromised ninjas.

"Hold this door," Phoenix ordered, then leapt after their sisters. "Here, Spoilsport! One spray of this, and they will be out for hours."

With the heavy blast door in place again, Damian really did not need to stay at the door, but he did anyway, watching in amazement as Nightwing and Alfred entered the main Cave area as well, joining the other three in spraying the sedative into the ninja's faces. It was not the first time he had seen them in action, but Damian had spent most of his life training alongside ninjas like these. There were forty or fifty in the cave, all taken down by a mere eight individuals. Admittedly it was the Bat's home base, prepared for invasions, but it still stunned Damian.

Not one Ninja was dead.

Suddenly Grandfather's caution in dealing with Father and his desire for Drake's loyalty made sense. There were legends of Grandfather's centuries, of the men and women who had stood against the League, who Grandfather had respected. Grandfather had triumphed over some, but not all. Some had fought their whole lives, only ended by illness, accident, or even age. Some Grandfather had won to his side. Each of them held a title in Grandfather's stories. The Blade, the Pirate, the General, the Sheik, the Inventor, and now, the Detective.

Drake was not the first one offered the Demon's Hand. Those Grandfather called by a title, were often invited to his side. Some had refused, and outwitted Grandfather, and became a challenge for Ra's. If Drake proved powerful, intelligent enough to get out of this, Grandfather would not order his death. He would never give up the desire to have Drake, but a man who had lived through medieval to modern times craved the unexpected.

"Alright, they're down. Bruce and Tim are holding the vehicle bay for now, but we have to get the jammer shut down," Nightwing said. "Spoiler, Batgirl, Damian, you three can fit through the crawlspace Tim put in, to get into the vehicle bay and give Batman and Robin back up. Phoenix, the security cameras in the manor show the ninjas have left to go around to the vehicle entrance. They might have left the jammer there."

"Why did Tim make the crawlspace so small?" Spoiler asked as Batgirl headed for Drake's workstation.

"Bruce was being overprotective for the first two months after we got Tim away from the Drakes. He tricked Bruce into locking down the cave, escaped through the crawlspace and kept Bruce shut down for four whole hours before Bruce realized why Tim was doing it," Jason answered. "Bruce kept it there both as a reminder that Tim is intelligent enough to outwit Bruce on occasion and because Tim began to use it to escape Dick and I when we got too clingy."

Drake's favored workstation was against the wall between the main cave and the vehicle bay. Batgirl opened the side of the cabinet to show the narrow passage. Both Batgirl and Damian fit with no problem, although it was a little tight for Spoiler, who was a couple inches taller than Cass and of a stockier build. Batgirl went first, since she had knowledge of where they were coming out.

Father and Drake were at the blast doors between the vehicle bay and the main cave, but they were not alone. Mother was fighting with them, cursing Father in five separate languages, but standing against the ninjas. None of the ninjas were confident enough to harm the Demon's Daughter, so Batman and Robin were using her as a partial shield.

"Grab the kid!" One of the ninja commanders shouted. "The Daughter will leave with the kid."

"Dang," Spoiler sighed. "I guess this was a mistake."

"Damian, go back," Batgirl snapped, but there was not time since twenty of Grandfather's men turned towards the three.

"Robin, get to the Redbird," Batman ordered quietly through the comms. "Spoiler, Batgirl, take Nightwing and Phoenix's bikes and go with him. Get out of Gotham and onto some back roads. Once you are free of the jammer, get the Justice League involved."

"Ok," Robin replied, though both Batgirl and Spoiler gave angry curses.

"B," Cass said. "Phoenix and Nightwing are looking for the jammer now."

"He's right, Batgirl," Robin replied. "We can't be sure they can find it before we are overwhelmed."

They were all speaking quietly amid the clatter of the hand to hand battle, only able to hear each other through the comms.

"Someone needs to get out and get a wider alert going," Nightwing interrupted Spoiler's attempt to argue using Drake as bait.

Damian and the girls were almost to the others, and as Robin broke the hands of a ninja who got too close he kicked out at another, sending the man stumbling back into the couple who stood in Damian's way. With a few seconds before the next attack, Robin grabbed Damian and pulled him into the group with Father and Mother. Batgirl and Spoiler took advantage of the moment and they all stood watching the ninjas back up for a few minutes to reevaluate and pull their wounded out of the way.

Father pulled Drake close to him.

"You are not to give yourself up, understand?" He said.

"Yes," Drake replied, but father did not let him go, uncertain he could trust the answer. Robin smiled cheekily at Batman. "I got it, B."

"Father," Damian grabbed his father's arm. "I should go to. Mother will try to take me away and leave you alone, but if I go with them, she'll have to keep fighting with you."

"Of course, I am going to take you away," Mother said. "This isn't your fight."

"I'm part of Father's Family," Damian Wayne replied simply. "Their fight is my fight."

Before Talia's rage at her son's choice could break over their heads, Robin threw out a handful of flash bombs, leaping forward into the smoke with his bo staff moving rapidly. Batgirl and Spoiler leapt after him, while Damian and Father followed to protect their backs. They were almost to the bikes when Damian glanced back at his mother. Talia had a gun in hand, pointed over Damian's shoulder at Drake.

Damian Al Ghul stumbled to a stop as he saw the opening approaching. In two more breaths Spoiler would be stepping to the side to get to Nightwing's bike. Talia would have the clear shot over Damian's shoulder. It was not a disarming shot. She aimed for the back of Robin's head.

Assassin and child had a second for the most important mental battle of his life. His rights as the blood son of the Bat and the Demon's daughter warred with the importance of Dick's hugs and Stephanie's promises. The jealousy of Drake's strengths warred with the knowledge that Drake's death could cause Father and family to break apart. Damian Al Ghul told Damian Wayne he would never have a rightful place in Father's Family. Damian Wayne told Al Ghul he already had a place.

When the twelve-year-old child leapt forward in the same second that Spoiler moved out of the way, the same nanosecond Talia pulled the trigger, it was the death of Damian Al Ghul. The promise to Drake that Father would not fall, meant only to come into play if Robin died, made Damian Wayne leap onto Robin's shoulders, covering the older boy's head. He made it up in time. The bullet hit him in the back as Drake stumbled and started to fall.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	23. Chapter Twenty Three

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Twenty-three**

**Tim**

Intellectually, Tim knew Talia did not have armor piercing rounds in a handgun, but the pained gasp Damian gave as the air was knocked from his lungs made Tim imagine the bullet had torn through two layers of armor into the kid's back. Robin could not regain his balance, and both boys crashed into the ground, knocking the air out of Tim's lungs. As they lay stunned, Spoiler and Batgirl both turned around to protect them, while Batman flung himself forward to cover them.

Spoiler's distraction cost her as she took a boot in the gut. Batgirl had to switch from Robin and Damian to defend Spoiler, which left only Batman to defend the boys. In their rush to the vehicles, they had let themselves be surrounded. Batman and Batgirl were both hampered by the incapacitated three. Batman took several hits before Damian recovered his breath.

"Get up," Damian ordered, pulling hard on Robin's cape as Tim sucked in air desperately. "You have to go."

Bruce stumbled back a few steps from a hard hit, and Damian lashed out with his blades as Tim used his staff to get up. Ninjas closed the gap between them and Bruce. There was no way Tim could leave Damian alone, surrounded. As Tim had told Damian just a quarter of an hour ago, you could not plan for everything. Talia had played the wild card and it had gone against the bats.

There was a breather in the fight as the Ninjas encircled the two boys, Batman had to fight half of them on his own, and Batgirl stood above Spoiler, who was finally getting her breath back. Tim pressed his chin into his left-hand glove, where he kept the small trackers he used. It took a moment to find an encased one and pull it into his mouth. As he swallowed it, he raised his staff again.

The ninjas had the upper hand now, and Damian was the first subdued. Tim swung out hard, trying to free the younger boy, but he already knew it was a lost battle. Needing a few extra seconds to send the tracker information to the Bat Network, he allowed the staff to be knocked out of his hand, and himself to be tripped. As the ninjas closed around him and Damian, he pressed the second of his sensors tied to the small trackers.

5, 4, 3, a prick in his neck made his limbs heavy, 2, 1. Tim let the sedative overwhelm him, hoping it was not a long time before he woke. The Ninjas would have to move fast and hard as the bats pursued them, which meant they might not take the time for a thorough search for trackers, relying on speed and restraints. He faded away.

**Bruce**

"Stop!" Talia cried, rushing forward as the ninjas with their two captives began to back up. "You have Drake! Give Damian to me!"

Bruce caught his breath and considered the retreating group. His com was beeping with an alert from Robin, so as Talia screamed at the ninjas and her father, Batman pulled Spoiler to her feet. Batgirl also hesitated, waiting for the order from the Bat. After a second to consider, Bruce signaled for the girls to give chase, while he played the alert over the wide com.

It contained a mere computerized voice with tracker information. Jason and Dick demanded what it meant.

"Tim and Damian are down. The ninjas have them, and they are backing out. Are you near the cave entrance?" Stephanie demanded.

"No," Jason cursed, "we found the jamming device and Dick is trying to break it out."

Bruce and his two daughters raced after the light-footed ninja group. Tim and Damian had disappeared into the black garbed crowd. Only half of the couple hundred ninjas remained able to fight. Talia was running after them, but her gun was down.

Bruce reached the closest ninja as they reached the underground entrance for the vehicles into a private wooded area on the Wayne Estate. As he lunged forward a flash blinded him, and he felt the explosion rattle above him. The carefully designed opening collapsed in on the last few ninjas and their pursuers, burying them in the rubble of dirt and concrete.

For a moment Bruce blacked out, but not for more than a half second. The weight of the dirt was crushing, and for a moment Bruce's heart panicked at the thought of suffocation, but he relaxed as much as he could, feeling dirt give. With desperation strengthening his limbs he pushed up, knocking some of the heavier rubble off his back and emerging from the dirt with a deep gasp for fresh air. Talia came up out of the dirt at the same time.

Behind them Stephanie was pulling Cass out of the rubble. Spoiler had been the slowest, so she missed the burying, while Batgirl was only partially buried.

"Bruce is ok," Stephanie shouted into the com as Bruce's breath and hearing reset. "Go catch up with them. Tim and Damian have been kidnapped."

"We're going!" Jason shouted back. "The jammer is coming down in 3, 2, 1." The crack of a small explosion echoed over the coms.

"-in Batman. I repeat, come in Batman," Oracle called over the com.

"I'm here, O," Bruce said. "Are you seeing Robin's alert? Are any of the Justice League free?"

"Green Arrow and Cyborg are on duty. Should I have them put out an alert?"

"Ask them to put someone fast on standby. Let's see what Tim is giving us. The League of Assassins attacked and have kidnapped both Tim and Damian. I would prefer not to have the Justice League involved, but if there is no other option, I want them ready to jump in."

"Will do, boss. That tracker is speeding up. I think it's in a vehicle now."

"It's a blue van, but I can't see the license plate from this angle. There are several other vehicles around it. Not enough to fit all of them. Some of the ninjas are on foot," Jason interjected.

"See if you can track some of them down," Bruce snapped. He scanned his daughters. Both their suits were filthy from the dirt shower, and Spoiler was holding herself a little cautiously, a bruise likely forming on her stomach. Batgirl was trained never to show pain, which meant Bruce would need to examine her closely. "Come on girls, Alfred is waiting for us in the cave. I want you two looked at while I go join Nightwing and Phoenix."

"But B, you took the brunt of the collapse. You need to get looked at too," Spoiler protested.

"Besides, going after the ninjas on foot will not work," Talia informed them. "only those tasked with taking Drake to my Father will know where to go."

Spoiler spun towards her dangerously, her eskrima sticks raised in threat. "Why should we believe anything you say? You nearly shot Tim in the head."

"I'd do it again if I believed it would protect Damian," Talia spat back. "I don't want Damian under my father's control. At this point, working with you is my best chance of getting Damian away from the Demon's Head. It's too late for Damian now. Father will consider the fact that he fought with you against the League a betrayal. You won, Bruce."

Gently Bruce lowered Spoiler's sticks. "It's okay, Steph," he said. "We may find her useful. She's right about the uselessness of going after the ninjas on foot. We need to get our prisoners out of the cave, and get into fresh suits and supplies. Tim gave us a chance with the tracker."

"They will remove his supplies," Talia pointed out.

"I highly doubt they can remove this one," Bruce answered. "You should be thankful for it. It is unlikely they will separate Damian and Tim until after they reach your father. We will have an idea of where to go. Nightwing, Phoenix, back to the cave. Oracle, see if a speedster is free to clean up our prisoners and take them to A.R.G.U.S. Waller will appreciate the chance to interrogate them."

By the time they reached the main cave again, the downed ninjas were vanishing in streaks of red and yellow.

"Anything we can help with?" Wally West asked as he paused in his work.

"Perhaps in time. We are still getting the lay of the situation. Is that Kid Flash?"

"Yes. He was with me when the request came."

"He hasn't told the Titans anything?"

"Not yet, but you know I won't stop him. I will let him know you have us on call. If you call in the Justice League, the Titans will come. Robin has put a rule in place that unless he calls for them, or the Justice League is called to intervene, the Titans are not allowed to come after him."

Bruce nodded. "Fair enough. It is unlikely a show down will take place in Gotham, so it may be acceptable for them to come, but I think it may be something we can handle. Thank you, Wally."

**Jason**

By the time Nightwing and Phoenix made it back into the cave, the speedsters had removed the fifty or so knocked out ninjas. They had also offered to clear the rubble of the destroyed vehicle entrance. Alfred was already coordinating the repairs with a few of the trusted Superheroes in need of employment.

"Nothing internal is damaged," Bruce said as he examined Stephanie's stomach. "Go change into a spare suit and restock the supplies. Dick, prep the Batwing. Cass, show me your back."

Jason flexed his hands, waiting for Bruce to satisfy himself that Cass's only injuries were a few bruises.

"Alright, old man, let's get a look at you," Jason said as Cass slipped away in tense silence to change. Bruce did not argue, which was concerning, unlatching his outer armor. "Timmy gave us a way to follow instantly."

"I know. But it's probably going to take us into one of Ra's strongholds, Jason. It's going to take us near a pit."

Jason's hands fumbled with the antiseptic wipe he was using to clean a gash on Bruce's forearm. It had not occurred to him that their pursuit could take them to the pit. The pit was rising in him less and less, either slowly eradicated by Tim's medicines, or his body adjusting to its presence. There were all sorts of implications about how long the pit lasted in the system, including Tim's observation that Jason healed faster than the others. What would happen if he went near the pit?

"I'll bring booster shots, as well as some of Tim's experimental stuff," Jason replied.

**Stephanie**

It was not even a whole hour since Tim and Damian were dragged off, before the remaining five bats, with Talia, were in the air, following the tracking device. It felt like days. They were in the fastest of the planes, which was also the most compact. There was more than enough room for them, however it was difficult to move and stretch out, which meant Stephanie's muscles were locking up and cramping before they were over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Both she and Cass were uninformed in the mysteries of flying a plane, and Jason was dozing, which left Bruce and Dick to be their pilots.

Although the kidnappers had an hour of lead time, they had closed the gap to ten or twenty minutes by the time they were over Africa. It was not Stephanie's first time out of the country, however it was the first time she was heading to the middle east. Tim and Dick could both speak some Farsi, while Jason was fluent in Arabic from his year living with Talia and Ra's. Stephanie was learning Mandarin and Romanian, but Farsi was not yet part of her dialects.

"It's the Demon's Seat," Talia and Jason said together as they watched the tracker slow.

"How long since you were last there, Talia?" Bruce demanded.

"Not since Jason ran away. Father was not pleased with me. I've been relegated to India for the most part, except for a few excursions to Honk Kong and Stockholm for Damian's training," Talia replied. She glared at Bruce, but he ignored her.

"Can't we catch up to them before they make it to the stronghold?" Cass asked.

"Unlikely. We aren't going to be able to land in the same place if we want any element of surprise. Ra's will expect us, but it will be better if he doesn't know when and where we are coming. Until they stop moving they have a great advantage by knowing the landscape," Bruce answered.

Stephanie filed that away in things to consider. It was an old habit from when she could only learn from the Bat by watching him, but it still was helpful, since many of Bruce's lessons only truly clicked when put into use.

"I have some satellite images," Oracle informed them from the plane's speakers. "You will want to download it to your tablets. Communications may be spotty once you are on the ground."

"Have you located Jack and Janet yet?" Bruce asked.

"No. They definitely landed in Kabul, but that was two days ago. I don't have anything further, and they haven't been reported missing by the expedition sponsors."

Bruce nodded, watching as Dick began to bring them into landing in the private airstrip that belonged to a contact.

"Who did sponsor that dig?" Stephanie asked curiously. "The Drakes have primarily always gone to European and African digs. Afghanistan is outside their usual journeys."

Bruce, Dick, Cass, and Jason all stared at her.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Oracle, we need to find out who sponsored this. It was probably Ra's himself," Bruce said.

"Of course, it was," Talia snapped. "Father has watched this Robin closely. It was not long before he had chosen the boy to be his next protégé. This has been planned out for over a year!"

"If you knew that, why would you bring Damian to me?"

"Because I didn't know until after the attack on the Gala! I was informed that Damian had joined in that battle after Father had funded Arthur Brown's mission against his daughter. It was a test!"

**Bruce**

Not even Dick or Stephanie was chattering as they emerged from the plane in the dark night. Cass was giving off a very dangerous air that Jason was adding to. Neither would act on it while Talia was useful, but the moment she had a hint of betraying them she was in grave danger. It was possible that Cass's lethality would be hard to restrain.

As they stretched out after the plane ride, there was none of the usual smack talk. They were all silent and watchful. Dick was playing with the communications, doing his best to reconnect with Oracle, Jason was checking their supplies one last time, Cass was removing her full cowl, leaving her upper face open, and Stephanie was scanning the area around them with binoculars.

Talia glanced at his children with a vicious glare, but it broke before she looked away, fear in her face. The terror was not surprising. Like Damian, Talia had been raised to believe she was better than everyone just because she was Ra's' daughter, but had also had to live in the fear that a misstep could cause her Father to disown her. She had been raised to be a deadly warrior, trained in ways similar to how she had trained Damian.

Despite his fury at her attempt to kill Tim, he understood why she was such a wild card. Rarely had she defied her Father. In a twisted way, she loved Damian.

"Talia, Damian belongs to me now. I think part of you wanted me to claim him, which is why you risked the introduction before he was completely initiated into the League of Assassins. Ra's has threatened him?"

She sighed and looked away.

"Yes, and now I have no chance of keeping control of him. Father will decree Damian must now learn his place in the family. If Damian displeases him... Father will kill him. One of my half siblings led a rebellion a few years back. Father executed him himself. Damian must belong to you, now. I will give my life to keep Damian away from Father,"

None of his children believed her.

"You have to know some of Ra's' secrets."

"Yes. He thinks I won't fight if he has Damian.

"If the league doesn't know you are with us, we have an advantage. What do you think Ra's will do now that he has Tim and Damian?"

"I don't know what his plans for Damian are, but Tim will be presented with the choice to be the Demon's Hand. Likely at the edge of the Pit itself, since the initiation involves bathing in the waters to see if he could overcome the madness of the Pit."

"How do we get there?"

She was silent, thinking.

"There is a way, only known to family and father's loyal protégés."

Within a few minutes they had a plan. The most dangerous part was to get to the secret entrance without being spotted. If they were seen with Talia, that way would be blocked. Once in the secret pathway, Bruce felt confident he and his children could handle themselves. His only worry was Jason.

Jason had gone pale the moment Talia had mentioned the Lazarus Pit.

"Is this the pit you were put in?" Dick asked softly, while Talia mapped out their path. Jason's wordless nod was concerning. However, when Bruce looked at him, Jason set his shoulders and clenched his fists.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	24. Chapter Twenty Four

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

**Tim**

It had been some time. He was lying on his stomach, with his hands restrained behind his back. The domino was still on. Of course, Ra's already knew who they were. He took careful stock of his body.

There were no new injuries, only the expected stiffness from a brutal fight that ended in motionlessness, and the cloudy feeling left by the sedative. His gloves, gauntlets and pouches were all removed, but his armor and boots were still on, and the secret compartments built into the armor, along his right side, felt untouched. The exhilaration of those compartment's contents flooded him with adrenaline, chasing more of the drug away. His feet were also restrained, and his boots felt lighter.

He was lying on a mat on the floor of a cargo plane. The rumble under him suggested it was in flight. Although his mouth was dry, it did not feel acidic, so it was unlikely they had made him vomit the tracker. It was entirely possible that they had not found that tracker. Hopefully, that little piece of forethought would prevent Bruce from scolding Tim for getting caught.

He shifted carefully, catching the eye of the unmasked ninja standing guard on the other side of the net curtain that separated the front from the back. The man looked unimpressed, before his eyes turned away from Tim, to the other side of the cargo hold. Damian, similarly divested of all but his body armor, and restrained in a similar manner, was lying on a second mat. For once, the jealous twist in his stomach at the sight of Damian was mingled with concern and curiosity.

Damian had saved his life. Damian had saved his life from the preteen's own mother. After months of living in anticipation of a deadly attack from the boy, Tim had some trouble reconciling that fact with Damian. Of course, he had understood that Damian truly wanted to please his father, but why that would extend to saving Tim's life confused the teenager.

A careful scan of his body's signals made him discover he was growing hungry. So, it was likely three or four hours since his snack on the way home from school. This meant he was unconscious for two or three hours. It had been around 10 when they had gotten home, and around 10:30 when the attack began. It was probably a little before or past one, eastern time.

The sun shone in the small windows at an angle that felt later than one. They were traveling east. Since east of Gotham was the Atlantic Ocean, it appeared they were heading to either Europe or Africa. Tim let himself relax into the mat as he perused his memories for the latest reports on Ra's. After the terrifying symbol found in his parents' house, these were fresh.

Everything indicated Ra's was in Africa or the Middle East.

Bruce's fastest plane could make the middle east in seven hours with the need to avoid certain radar areas. It was probable that the league had the same speed and requirements to travel unnoticed by the ever-growing satellites. It was possible the tracker would be out of satellite range at times, but there was enough coverage that even a spotty trace could be used to track their location. The battery life on the tracker was several days, enough time for it to pass through his digestive system and leave his body. At which point it would become a marker of where he had been.

More than enough time for Batman to come find them. His gauntlets were visible in the pile of his removed items and the broken appearance indicated the tracker had been found there. The fact that it did not appear the one in his stomach was found meant it was probably only a visual examination. Time was a factor, but it was possible that Ra's did not feel it important to conceal their location.

About an hour after Tim woke up, Damian finally began to stir. He immediately rolled over and shot up, glaring around the area. The ninja guard was instantly on alert. Tim had intentionally moved slowly to avoid revealing his reaction time. For all his arrogance, Damian had a lot to learn. It was not all bad. Tim now knew the reaction time for their guard.

"Where are you taking me?" Damian demanded.

"Silence. You are being brought to Lord al Ghul. You do not need to know anything more. The Demon's head is displeased with you," the man replied stiffly.

"I am the son of the Daughter. You will address me with respect."

"No disrespect is meant. I am following my Master's orders, Son. He wishes Drake unharmed, but you may be harmed if you fight. Be silent. You will see the Master soon."

Damian narrowed his eyes, but offered no more demands. Instead, he began to take closer stock of their surroundings. Tim wanted to point out his error in not doing that first, to see the flush of shame and frustration on the arrogant brat's face, but logic decreed their personal fight not be shown to their captors. After all, Damian had saved his life, and that could indicate to their captors they thought of each other as brothers.

After a few more hours Tim's stomach was insistent on eating, and his bladder was begging to be emptied. Damian was in no better situation, but neither wanted to be the first to ask for something from their captors. Instead, they used their rivalry to distract themselves from their body's needs, staring across the small room at each other.

It became mere contest of wills and they started making faces at each other, silently telling the other to break first.

"Up. We will be landing in a couple of hours. You may relieve yourself back here." Their guard pulled Tim to his feet and led him into the back where a single toilet served the whole plane. His hands were untied, but the man watched his every move. It was quite useless to fight while in a plane that was in the air, controlled by more than their sole guard. Tim did his business, ignoring the blush that came from the lack of privacy.

When they returned to the mat, Tim's hands were tied together in front of him and then attached to the wall. Again, it was rope, a medieval binding, but effective since his lock picks were one of the few tools still hidden on him, but both the small knives had been located. He flexed hard, so the rope was a little looser, but it would still be a chore to undo. After Tim was restrained again, Damian was taken to the toilet.

His high boy's voice berated the guard for the lack of privacy, but he had the wit not to start a fight. Tim was familiar enough with Damian by now, to recognize that fear made him even more overbearing and belligerent. It was a good sign that they were treating them the same. Damian could be punished, but not tortured for fun.

They were given water and then left alone for the last two hours of the journey. The guard was visible through the net wall, and could hear anything they tried to say over the noise of the plane. It was possible they were being watched through a camera as well, but Damian had enough information on the signals the bat family used for them to briefly, silently discuss where they were going and what they should do when they arrived.

Although they disagreed on how they should go about escaping, both agreed they should make the attempt as soon as possible.

Tim stayed relaxed as they landed, glaring at Damian, who initially began to tense up in preparation for the escape attempt. While the boy glared at the older boy, he followed the example. They remained quiet and obedient as they were untied from the wall and guided towards the exit of the plane. The sun was gone by now.

It appeared it was the middle of the night where ever they were. Since Tim's time calculation indicated it was only six or seven in the evening at home, it was probable that they were in the middle east. He looked at Damian. The boy gave a slight nod. Damian knew where they were.

A truck was approaching, and Damian was tensing up again. Tim frowned, keeping his own body relaxed. Despite Damian's actions in saving his life, the older boy had the thought that Damian might be working with the League to get Tim to Ra's. There was no evidence to support this, but Tim had learned not to ignore his gut feelings, even if they were not always correct.

Damian was a skilled offensive fighter, far more trained than Tim's weekly martial arts classes had ever given him at twelve. He was athletic enough that Dick and Jason's defensive lessons were starting to pay off. Like Tim with his bo, and Dick with his eskrima sticks, Damian was a skilled blade user. What he lacked mostly was subtlety and the open mindedness to learn from those he did not like. It was the lack of subtlety that worried Tim.

"Do not test us, boy," the ninja in charge said. "It would be better for you to come quietly."

"Of course, I would obey a mere peon," came the sneering reply and Damian struck out. Jason's repeated reminders not to telegraph intent had not rubbed off as much as his sarcasm.

Tim held still, cataloguing the response. One of those guarding him glanced at him.

"No fight from you?"

"Why would I fight? I am outnumbered and do not yet know where I am," Tim replied, grudgingly admiring Damian's skill in battle even when the use of his hands was restricted. "For all his training, the brat gave away any chance of surprise we might have had."

He let his shoulders slump a little, wincing when Damian took a hit. The guard laughed and looked toward the fight. His mistake. With the men around him distracted, having swallowed the lie of his words and body, Tim had the element of surprise. He had been quietly working on his ropes since the change in position.

From his relaxed position he pretended to stumble forward, throwing his bound arms up and around the neck of the shortest ninja present. She gasped, but Robin was already swinging her around, using her body to trip another man, while planting his stronger right leg and using the left to kick in the groin of another. He heard Damian scoff.

"I was starting to think you were going to make me do all the work."

"Well," Tim answered as he got the rope off his hands and used it to choke the woman unconscious, "you ruined the chance of a surprise, so I had to make my own chance. When we get home, you are going to learn how to leap into battle from a relaxed poise." If this was not a lie. If Damian had really chosen the Bats, over the Assassins. If Damian was going to be a Bat and take Robin's cape one day, when it was time for Tim to move on, then Tim was going to have to teach the little Assassin Brat some of his secrets, so the cape's reputation would not be marred.

"You want to teach me?" Damian asked in a surprised voice as they finally got back to back. "You could teach me how to be someone else?"

"Let's get out of this before we, uh, discuss what you need to learn," Tim replied, taking a hard blow in his weak shoulder.

"Enough!" The ninja in command shouted. Several clicks around them spoke of guns being cocked. Both boys froze, searching for the source. Tim sucked in a deep breath, seeing that the weapons were aimed only at Damian. "Your attempt is made, there is no shame in your failure. It is futile to continue, and we will shoot the Daughter's Son, not to kill, but to cripple."

Tim felt Damian stiffen in anger and reached his hand back. "They have a sniper on the truck. Bruce will come for us, I promise."

For a moment he was afraid the boy would continue fighting, for he could feel the terror running through Damian's arms. Damian was afraid to face his grandfather. A sense of relief, that his gut feeling was wrong, filled Tim as he held the boy's arm firmly.

"We will stand down, but you do not need to restrain us. We will come with you, but only together," Tim replied. "If Damian is harmed, I won't stop fighting."

"Drake?" Damian whispered.

"They don't want me harmed," Tim replied openly. "We are at a great disadvantage in the dark and on unfamiliar land. We've shown we can make things very difficult. They are smart enough to know this works better for all of us."

Damian relaxed a little. The ninjas around them slowly stood down.

"Then come," they were told. Tim turned around to face the same way as Damian, towards the truck that was reaching them. He placed a hand on Damian's shoulder, determined that they were not going to be separated.

They were told to get in the back of the truck. Tim obeyed, leading Damian, who had become quiet and was keeping close to Tim. That was weird enough, but when they were in the truck and Damian was sitting against Tim, with their bodies touching, Tim had a moment of is-the-brat-actually-trusting-me-to-protect-him. Was Bruce right that Damian's recent observations of Robin was not to find further weakness, but to figure out his strengths, to make them his? Considering the stress Damian's watchfulness had caused Tim, it felt surreal.

The journey was brief for such a remote location. It was no more than half an hour before they were approaching the Demon's Seat. Even in the dead of night, the sight was awe inspiring. It was like stepping back in time, with the fortress built into the side of the brown cliff, lit by flickering torch light, and guarded by men and women in ceremonial garb, visibly armed with only swords.

The truck was like a jarring intrusion.

As he kept his hand on Damian's shoulder, while they were climbing out of the truck, Tim looked up. On an upper floor balcony, Ra's al Ghul stood looking down at them, lit by firelight. Tim's gut clenched in fear. This man's attention was never something he had wanted, and even if it was because Ra's believed Tim to be the greatest of all Bruce's children, there was no pride in the thought.

The boys were led into the main entrance. Tim was fascinated by the fortress, but used his awe to hide the fact that he was marking every location of all the ninjas present. Damian was not even looking around, keeping his pale face turned forward and inching ever closer to Tim. Determination to protect Damian, from this place that frightened him so much, welled up in Tim. Maybe, they would never be more than jealous of each other, resentful of the place the other held in the family, but here and now, Damian was part of the Bat Family.

"The Master wishes them brought to the Demon's Hall," a servant quietly informed their guards.

They were led deeper into the cliff fortress, into a large, ornate room lit by candles and torches only. The history of the League was on its walls in the weapons and trophies from centuries of their plots. Ra's was awaiting them at the end of the hall, where he sat in a throne. Next to Robin, Damian stumbled. Tim reached out and pulled Damian closer, glaring at Ra's.

"Timothy, it is good to see you here, where you belong. Do not concern yourself with my grandson. I do not mean to uselessly harm the child, but he will be punished," Ra's said.

"Not while I'm here," Tim answered, and for that moment, all the hurts and jealousies were gone. Damian was Tim's brother and that was all that mattered.

Ra's smiled. "You are as strong as I expected. For now, until you understand what you are being given, I will allow you to keep him with you. You both must be hungry after your journey. I will call for food and drink." He nodded to a pair of servants standing in the shadows.

"First, young Timothy, I wish to give you a gift. As you take your place with me, it is a needed step, but considering what they have done to you, I think even now you can appreciate it."

Ra's pointed to the side of the hall, and torches were brought to light the area up. Tim flinched back as his parents' faces were revealed. They were going to be furious with him. They would know he was Robin and use that to blackmail Bruce. Suddenly his knees were buckling, and Damian was the only thing keeping him upright, as all his fears were crushed into shame and guilt.

His parents would never be able to do any of that.

They were dead.

**Damian**

It was not often that Damian felt his age. He despised the few other children he knew for their naivety and silliness. It felt foolish that children were usually protected from the bad in the world. When he had woken on the plane and realized they would be going to his grandfather, a man Damian had tried to emulate, who he had respected (feared), he wanted Dick and Father to be there. He wanted them to hide him away and tell him it would be all right, when it was possible it would not be.

He only had Drake, which had started out as irritating. When they had landed, when he had realized where they were, Drake had become his only ally and protector. When Robin had stepped up to be that protector, keeping Damian from being harmed, the preteen had felt relief. In the back of his mind, he was faintly annoyed with himself for acknowledging that Timothy Drake, who had won Damian's place in Father's life and grandfather's fascination, was better able to see a way out of this.

It had been nice to be able to feel Drake at his side, always keeping a hand on him. Despite the punishment looming in front of the Daughter's Son, Damian had felt protected. With Damian al Ghul surrendered to Damian Wayne little more than eight to ten hours ago, the previously dangerous, traitorous thought that he needed the love of his family to thrive had roared to life. The jealousy and fear of Drake's place was dimmed. Tim was protecting Damian.

Tim was telling _grandfather_ he could not punish Damian with a beating, or being locked up. And grandfather had humored him.

When Drake's legs buckled, Damian was still pressed against him, so he could keep Robin upright. Considering what Damian knew about the Drakes, he felt a bit of vindictive pleasure that they were no longer a threat to his protector. Drake, however, was horrified. He should have felt relief, but he did not.

"They can't do anything," Damian pointed out.

"They're dead," Tim mumbled. "Because of me."

Although Damian had had a few moments of understanding father's refusal to kill, it did not make sense that guilt was the teenager's response. He had not sent them into danger, nor had he killed them himself. It was not his fault. They had abused and neglected Tim. He owed them nothing.

"They were your weakness," grandfather, Ra's, said. "You could have defended yourself from them, but you wanted their approval, so let them deprive and harm you. Oh, Batman did an excellent job of hiding that information. A few threats to them and they spilled the whole sordid story of why Bruce Wayne was raising their son. When they realized I was going to kill them, they even tried to promise to never think of you."

With a few words, Ra's was destroying Timothy. Grandfather knew exactly what showing him his dead parents would do. Worse, Robin believed his parents really would make such a promise. Mother would never make that promise about Damian. She had hurt her son. Dick and Stephanie had said that over and over, but Mother's recent actions to try and keep Damian out of this battle, going against Ra's himself to do so, showed she did care in her own way.

Tim had no such consolation.

"There was no need to do this," Robin said in a cold, dead voice. "They were happy, living out their dreams. They were never going to change their minds about what was more important."

"That is true, but it was your hope," Ra's answered. "Bruce Wayne may be a father to you, but there was a little sliver of you which thought, maybe one day. If you are to serve me, there is no place for futile hopes."

"There is no chance of me serving you. I wouldn't have before this, but now? Now, you have my attention. Is that what you wanted? You won't. I can manipulate Batman. I can make meta teenagers obey me. You won't see me coming."

Once again Damian was struck with Tim's ability to become a different person in every situation. Oh, Robin was confident, liked to be the smartest person in the room, but this was something more. Drake believed every word he had just spoken. In Stephanie or Jason, it would have been just angry arrogance. Grandfather looked impressed, which was proof that he respected Drake's abilities.

Damian had made the mistake of not respecting what the teenager could do. Would it make a difference that Grandfather did respect Drake?

Batman's son hoped it did not.

"You will try, but when you understand what I am offering, you will turn your mind to aiding me. For now, you should eat. We still have a few hours before dawn. More than enough time for you to pass the test of the Pit," Ra's replied.

"I won't take your test," Robin spat.

"You do not have a choice. Eat. You will need your strength to face the madness. I have no doubt you will come through. I understand that my presence may be a deterrent at this moment. By morning, you will understand. Grandson, I am sorely disappointed by your betrayal. Your mother has not trained you to my expectations. Drake needs to feel he is protecting you, but when he has sworn loyalty to me, then you will be punished. Perhaps I will have him punish you."

Ra's left them then, while the guards backed away to stand around the room. Food was laid on the low table.

"It won't happen, Damian," Tim said in a quiet voice. "I promise."

He stood up and walked to his parents. Damian scrambled after him, ashamed of his need to stay near the only person here who wanted to keep him safe. Despite Ra's words, they had been killed with a single gunshot each. It had been through the heart, so their faces were only a little dirty with remnants of tears and dirt. Mother had suggested they were dead under twelve hours ago, but it was obvious they had only been dead an hour at the most.

"I'm sorry I got you killed. You wouldn't believe me, but the man who murdered you will be sorry for it."

Tim closed their open eyes and then stood up, his body tense.

"Come on, we need to eat. Bruce will be here soon," he said, putting his hand on Damian's shoulder again.

Damian felt a little frightened by how quickly Tim had suppressed his grief and guilt, and returned to the matter at hand. It felt unnatural. Nonetheless, Damian squared his shoulders and led the way to the table. Any hunger either had was hidden by the fear of their situation, but Tim made them both eat some meat and bread and some dessert. Ra's had provided them with coffee. Despite Alfred's dislike of the boys drinking coffee, both had secret stashes in the manor.

"Drake, the pit," Damian began.

"I know, Damian," Tim replied. "I was the one who figured out how to combat it for Jason."

"Not everyone reacts the same way. Grandfather is somehow controlled when he comes out."

"I have a plan. Hopefully I do not end up in the pit, but I have a contingency for if that happens."

"What is your plan? What am I supposed to do?"

"When the time comes, you will fight. That is all you need to do. Everything else is on me."

Damian wanted to ask for more, but Tim was acting like father at his sternest. So, he kept quiet, prepared to follow the older boys lead. It was puzzling how Drake's promises made Damian feel better, but now was not the time to work that out.

"Why did you save my life?" Tim asked as they finished their meal.

"You said Father might break if you died. If he broke, the whole family might break. It's just starting to feel like I belong. I couldn't lose that."

"But that's why I told you about it. You could have forced them to not break. You weren't supposed to risk your life. If Bruce lost any of us, it would be hard. His whole life has been spent trying to stop that from happening to everyone else."

"Do you really think Father would be that affected if he lost me? He's giving me a second chance, but only out of duty."

"The secret to Bruce isn't that he doesn't care," Tim replied. "He cares more than anyone I know. He just isn't emotionally capable of showing it. It terrifies him each time his family grows and the risk for loss grows. But the moment he knows he cares, he doesn't try to stop.

"Dick, Jason, and Cass were children in need, children he took pity on and grew to love. You and Stephanie and I, we either were put into his life, or forced our way in, until suddenly he realized that he cared for us, too. It took him months to warm up to me. He's already much more comfortable with you than he was with me after six months. He loves you, Damian, I promise. Whether we were chosen or chose him or given to him, he loves us all."

It was at the word of Timothy Drake, the boy Damian had tried to kill, the boy who had what Damian had wanted, the boy who had stood up to Batman and Nightwing, who had saved Phoenix from being Red Hood, who had done all he could to protect Spoiler when Batman would not, the boy Damian had hated and envied, it was his word that made Damian believe it was no longer an unfulfilled desire. Dick had said it, Stephanie had promised it, Todd had tripped over it, but until then, Damian had believed Tim would always be the loved one. Now Damian realized they could both be loved.

"I trust you are both rested and refreshed," Ra's interrupted. "It's time for the test."

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	25. Chapter Twenty Five

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Oh, boy. I hope this meets everyone's expectations.**

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

**Bruce**

They had made it to the top of the cliff above the Demon's Seat.

There was plenty of curiosity about what the fortress looked like, but no one dared look and risk the discovery of their presence. In the dark, Talia was struggling to find the entrance. As they got closer to their goal, the jitters had begun. Stephanie and Dick could not hold still, unless they were focused on looking for patrols and look outs. When they reached the location, Jason's hands began flexing, flipping his Phoenix flash bangs over and over. By the time Talia stumbled onto the specific rock she was looking for, even Cass was pacing.

"Bruce, promise me to save Damian," Talia demanded.

"I promise," Bruce replied.

She pushed on the pillar that marked the location, and a hole opened next to it.

"Jason," Bruce said.

"No," Jason said, pulling a pill bottle from his pocket. "I'm taking a booster now. It's Tim, Bruce. Ra's might be trying to do it to Tim."

"Alright. Talia, lead the way. I'm first, then Phoenix, Spoiler, Batgirl. Nightwing, the rear."

Jason and Stephanie were not blind to the reasons for their locations. If being near the pit sparked a flashback or made the pit blood still in Jason react, Bruce wanted to be able to stop Phoenix before he harmed himself or someone else. Even after six months of training, Stephanie was still the weakest link. Bruce would not force her to remain behind, but with Cass behind her, she would be safe. Dick, he trusted to protect their backs.

All their lenses had a night vision mode, so they had no need for light as they began climbing down the ladder into the cavern path.

Bruce was proud to realize he did not fear any of them would derail the plan. Tim and Damian were the youngest. No matter how close the age gap between Cass, Stephanie, and Tim was, Tim had held that youngest place in the family, until Damian's arrival. That extra protectiveness for the younger members of a family was filling them all.

It was only five minutes at most before they could see the lights, that spoke of their destination, and hear voices. It felt like days. There was always the chance that he was too late again. With the knowledge of what Jason still had to battle, the notion that Tim could face that too, was nerve-wracking.

"-see if you have more will than the pit."

That was Ra's. Bruce dropped a little spybot, syncing the video to his lenses. It rolled to the edge of the entrance. This Lazarus Pit was deep in the sandstone mountain, behind the fortress. If Bruce remembered right, it was behind the Demon's Hall. The door was right behind his throne.

"No."

That was Tim. Ra's was standing with his back to the Pit, and the entrance to the secret passage. Tim and Damian both stood a few feet in front of Ra's. They were close together, and Tim was resting his hand on Damian's shoulder.

"You do not understand, Timothy. Not all my Hands are allowed to enter the Pit, but you have the will and wit to gain that honor. I am offering you longevity, immortality. Just a taste of this, and you will understand."

"I saw what it did to Jason. I will not willingly go in there."

"Had Jason stayed with me, he would have been permitted to feed his hunger and bathe again."

"Have you ever studied the waters?" Tim was openly incredulous. "Did you make this sacred, so it would be a mystical fountain of youth? I thought you were supposed to be intelligent."

"Some mysteries are better left alone," Ra's replied. "I own all the Lazarus Pits across the world."

"You are a fool not to have studied it."

"Join me, and you can have that honor."

Tim's hand tightened on Damian's shoulder, begging for silence. Damian kept still and his face blank.

"What makes you think I haven't studied it already? I got Jason home. It's possible I may know more of its secrets than you."

Ra's went completely still. Tim had surprised him.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know the Pit. It's part of why you are so single minded. It plays on your mind, raising your fears, your desires to delusions. Jason was put into the pit, after being betrayed to the Joker, he was almost dead. I've tracked your history as far back as I can. It can sometimes take you years to become visible after deadly injuries. Do you think Jason gained his sanity back before you would?"

"Enough. Your skills lie in your lies. Perhaps, you know somethings about the Pit from Todd, but not enough."

A signal from Ra's and the silent ninjas at guard around the room moved. They closed around the boys, pulling them apart.

"Tim..." Damian cried.

"I promise, Damian," Tim smiled as four men took hold of his arms and pulled him forward. "Even if I go in, Bruce will be here. They will have the antidote."

That was enough for Bruce. He signaled his family.

Dick or Stephanie would have emerged with a quip on a normal day, but the silent rush was as surprising. The nearest ninjas were taken out before they knew what was happening. Ra's lunged forward, grabbing Tim by the neck before turning around to seize Damian. As the rest of his family spread around the room to take down the ninjas, Bruce closed the distance to Ra's. Talia followed Bruce.

"That was certainly quicker than I expected," Ra's said, his scarred, strong hands holding each boy's neck. Tim was relaxed, his hands crossed in front of his torso. Damian was trying to keep relaxed as well, glancing at Tim with awe out of the corner of his eye. "If only you were young enough to put in the Pit, Detective. You are too set in your ways to succumb to its allure. Timothy is a good second choice."

"Let them go, Ra's," Bruce answered. Tim was doing something with his right hand, but since it was hidden under his left elbow, Batman could not be sure what it was.

Several ninjas came to Ra's back, while Bruce's family regrouped behind him. They were too close to the pit. Ra's could push one or both in, and Bruce did not think he was close enough to catch them. Batman stepped forward.

"Stop, Bruce," Ra's ordered, leaning Tim forward.

"You aren't going to do that. You've lost, Ra's. Let them go."

"I don't need both. I would prefer Timothy, but Damian would be a good back up to him. We do not need to battle this out. Choose one to go with you. The other will stay here and serve me. Which do you want? Damian? Or Timothy?"

Tim stopped his secret movements, looking at Bruce with a sudden fear. On the other side, Damian stiffened, and dread closed the boy's eyes. Ra's knew enough of the tension between them to throw this out there. Around Bruce his other children flinched, looking nervously between the boys. Just a few months ago there would have been clear cut lines between them of which boy was in more need. Time had begun to erase that. Even Jason looked at Tim and Damian with the same dread.

"Neither of them belong to you. Even if I were to choose, the one who remained with you would not willingly serve you. Leave my sons alone, Ra's," Bruce said.

"How do you think Timothy will survive in the Pit? The neglected, abused, orphaned child who had to fight for his place at your side. He may come out sane, but will he come out loyal? What about Damian? He must be so confused, discovering the differences between our families. He must dread giving you up, must be so jealous that we both prefer Timothy. What will the pit bring up in them?"

"B," Dick said in a soft voice. Asking what they should do. Asking Bruce to save them both.

Damian opened his eyes, his shoulders settling as he looked at his family opposite him. His eyes swept over each of them, memorizing them, refusing to give them up. Then he looked straight into Bruce's face.

"Father, choose Drake. You need him more than me."

"Not letting go, Dami," Stephanie whispered. "Not letting either of you go."

The offered sacrifice stunned Bruce. He was both proud of Damian for making the offer, and horrified that Damian believed they could be weighed against each other. The boy gave a little smile as his eyes skittered to Tim, who was still slightly bent forward.

"I think Tim needs Father more, too."

"You can't measure one person's need against another in a situation like this," Tim replied, his face blank. "A choice shouldn't be made."

"No surrender, Timothy? That will serve you well in the League," Ra's smiled.

"Grandfather, will you let Timothy go if I swear my loyalty?" Damian asked. "What will you take to give Tim back?"

Ra's glanced at his grandson with surprise. "You truly have become a Bat, grandson. I expected such an offer from Ti-argh."

Tim moved. He twisted against the grip on his neck, turning towards Ra's as he threw a strike into the Demon's Heads throat. It caught Ra's by surprise, though it was not enough to take the man down. He let Tim go to reach for his throat. Tim flung himself at Damian, but Ra's reacted quicker, letting Damian go, using his fist to slug Tim hard across the face. The younger boy dropped to the ground to get out of the way as the Bats leapt across the space.

They came to a sudden halt as Tim righted himself and held up a hand. Ra's had stumbled back after punching Tim and he looked sick to his stomach.

"What did you do?" Ra's demanded, before he was doubled over, vomiting. Damian scrambled out of the way, racing towards Nightwing. The ninjas stood in silence, waiting for a signal from their Master. Bruce reached a hand to rest on Tim's shoulder, as Dick wrapped his arms around Damian.

"What did you do?" Ra's repeated, as he fell to his hands and knees.

"It's a purging medication, designed to counteract the Lazarus Pit. I created it to help Jason. There are some unfortunate side effects. What do you think would happen if I threw the rest of my supplies into the pit? I don't think it would destroy the pit, but it might mess it up for a little bit."

Ra's began to heave again. Tears were streaming down the ancient man's face, and sweat was already beading. Jason blinked and then laughed. "You're purging the pit blood from Ra's?"

"Where did you get that?" Dick asked in amazement. "They took everything from you."

"Not everything," Tim gave a bloody sneer. "They didn't search my armor hard enough, just like they didn't scan for trackers. They found all the ones in my armor and on my supplies, but they never scanned for more. They had no idea I had swallowed one."

Ra's was vomiting again. When he managed to stop, he glanced up from his humiliating position on his hands and knees. "How?

"I told you, you wouldn't see me coming. All you saw was the third Robin. You still look for things Dick and Jason did. I may have impressed you somehow, but you only ever saw Robin. I never show my full hand. You believed I was defenseless. I'm not. Tell your ninjas to let us go, and I won't throw these in. You will let us go, and you will let me take my parents' bodies home. I will not be your servant or ally.

"I chose Batman long before he knew about me. That is my place. That is my home."

Bruce was proud, yet disturbed by Tim's victory. It was well done, but it was not like Tim to rant when he had won. Robin was emotionally compromised. He had won against a villain that the Justice League was cautious about approaching, but Ra's had rattled him badly.

Batman tried to pull Robin back, to let him take over, but Robin shook him off.

"Do you understand?" He barked at the Demon's head.

"Yes. You may go, young Detective. You are an honorable foe," Ra's said as formally as he could, as heaves began shaking his body again.

"Damian, show Nightwing and Phoenix where my parents are. Batgirl, Spoiler, find a vehicle we can use. Bruce, what is Talia now?" Tim shot out orders and demands.

"She led us here, but I am not sure what she plans to do now."

"You won. Take Damian and make him great," Talia spat. "I will make my peace with my Father."

Bruce wondered if there was peace to be made, but Talia would never listen to anyone. It was her choice to stay with her Father, where her actions might bring down his rage. Bruce could not bring himself to suggest she leave. Her actions had been partly responsible for this mess, and she had tried to kill Tim not even a full day ago.

Tim refused to move from watching Ra's struggle with his sickness, not until Damian came back to tell them the Drakes' bodies were recovered, and they had a vehicle to leave in. Despite the observing ninjas, Bruce did not think they were in danger anymore. Tim had outwitted Ra's. Ra's had acknowledged that and was letting them go. He had addressed Tim in a specific way, raising Robin to the level of Batman in Ra's eyes. It was not the safest place to be, but Tim's refusal to be the Demon's hand would not lead to a death order now.

Ra's had led the League of Assassins for centuries. He had kept it a cohesive group that whole time. They were labeled as pirates, bandits, assassins, terrorists as the era called them, but it always existed as killers wanting to purge the earth. Occasionally, he met with an individual who had the wit to surprise him. Although they were a threat to his organization, he never put a death order on them. They were his hobby, or his practice, or a break in a long life.

Tim was now one of these.

It frightened Bruce. Tim should have been pleased, should have been upset, should have been furious, anything, but Tim was merely hidden. Ra's had struck Tim very personally. Even if Bruce's guilty first thought on knowing the Drakes were dead was that Tim would be fully his now, Bruce knew that for Tim it would be guilt, because of why they died, and shame for the relief that he would feel that they could not threaten the life he had now.

"It's over, Tim," Bruce said, gently pulling Tim away from where Talia was tending to her ill father. "Come on. Let's go home."

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**

**Ok. I feel I need to address my version of Ra's. Ra's has always struck me as a strange villain. I think he's supposed to be an environmental terrorist, but he's completely narcissistic and believes he is larger than life. He presents himself as mystical at times, and I think after centuries of life, he half believes his own mythos.**


	26. Chapter Twenty Six

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Chapter Twenty-Six**

**Bruce**

They were all watchful as they left, but they returned to the Bat wing without pursuit or ambush. Dick had fussed over Damian until the boy got annoyed and went to sit with Stephanie, whose fussing consisted of asking him what he had done on his vacation. When Dick tried to butt in on Jason checking Tim over, Bruce asked his eldest to get them in the air. Now, in the safety of his family, Tim had deflated, as if all energy and emotion had vanished.

In an emotional state, Dick would be the best choice to work with Tim, but when Tim retreated in this manner, Dick's hugs and chatter made Tim flinch. Jason had learned to just tell Tim what he was doing when looking the boy over, which did not get a bad reaction. Bruce had done this himself in Tim's early days, when a situation overwhelmed the boy. There were no wounds other than bruises from the fight the day before.

"You smell," Stephanie informed Damian. "That's your same suit from yesterday."

"We weren't offered a change of clothes," the boy scoffed.

Tim looked up at Damian who was sitting across from him now. He reached out a hand to touch the boy's knee. "Keep close," he said. "Keep close until we're home."

There was no flash of anger from Damian. Instead Damian nodded solemnly.

"Do you think you can sleep?" Bruce asked Tim quietly.

"No. I can't stop thinking."

"Ok, baby bird," Bruce murmured, ignoring Jason's eyebrow. He rarely used the nickname the older brothers used, but Tim always got a small smile on his face when he did. "Do you think you can give a report?"

"B," Jason began, then stopped when Tim nodded.

"It'll be easier than sitting here thinking."

Tim was distant in the report, hardly using first person pronouns if he could help it. No one interrupted with questions. The weight of Tim's parents' bodies in the back of the plane, was on them all. It was easy to fill in the blanks, especially regarding the way the two boys had come to be so protective of each other.

"I'm going to take a nap now," Jason announced when it was over. He tugged Tim onto the seat next to him, and offered him one of his ear buds from his tablet. "You stay there. I need to know you're safe while I sleep. Here, listen to this with me. It's that Gaudy Night Book that Bruce enjoys."

"Lord Peter Wimsey is a well written sleuth from the golden age of mystery," Tim answered. "Besides, you like to read those too."

"Humor me," Jason said.

Bruce left his third son in the care of the second and approached Damian, curled up next to Stephanie. Cass had gone into the cockpit to watch Dick fly. In the escape, or retreat, or release, Dick had not shared Damian, which was good because Bruce had seen Tim was in more need of fatherly help.

"Dick said you were not hurt? Did he actually look?"

"Yes, Father. I was not hurt. Drake said he would fight if they hurt me, and they already knew we could make a lot of trouble, so they let us stay together."

Bruce carefully considered the boy, uncertain if physical affection would be welcome or not. After holding Tim close for most of their journey to the plane, and assured himself there were no severe physical injuries, Bruce needed to do the same with Damian. Stephanie looked at Bruce curiously. Then she sat up.

"I need a hug," she sighed. "This was a long day. Come on, you two. Don't let your favorite blonde feel alone."

There were times when Bruce worried he had made the wrong decisions with Stephanie. It was times like these, when she could demand hugs, so the awkward father and son would hug, that Bruce wondered why he had ever thought she did not belong to his family. Damian crept forward cautiously, and she opened her arms wide. With a half sob, the boy wrapped himself around her. She held him tight.

"Not letting go," She whispered. "Come on, B, you, too." She raised an arm and Bruce swept forward to hold both his newest children tightly. Dick was chattering to Cass in the cockpit, Jason was holding a dozing Tim, and his family was safe.

**Talia**

Since Timothy had taken his vials with him, they had to draw Father's blood to figure out what the boy had injected him with. Father had not had her clapped in irons, though he promised restitution for her failures in between his bouts of sickness. She said nothing in return, already planning her next moves. Father would require her to disown Damian.

At least it meant Damian would not be dead. Twelve years of planning to use Damian to gain Bruce as her consort, to be able to use his power and intelligence to rise above her father, all was gone. She had anticipated Damian being confused by the Wayne Family, even growing to like it a little, but she had not expected that he would not only prefer his Father, but that he would succumb to Bruce's charity children, especially in so short a time.

"That was ill-planned Talia. Most of Wayne's children came to him when they were eleven or twelve. They all joined his crusade," Ra's said from his bed. "Damian is lost to us. Fortunately, this is not a real set back anymore. Damian has not lived up to my expectations. He has always had the weakness of his father. Had we been able to train it out of him, he would have been great, but too much Wayne blood runs in him."

"Yes, Father. I had hoped I would bring Bruce back, too. A girlish dream."

Ra's raised an eyebrow.

"Timothy Drake is likely going to be a greater foe than Bruce Wayne. It is too easy to underestimate him. His blood line may suit my purposes better."

"You are not going to put a kill order out?"

"No. Before Batman, it had been a while since I faced a worthy foe. Now I have two. I have grown stagnant. This will sharpen me up again."

"I am sorry for my failure with Damian."

"Your disobedience is the greater matter. Damian had already made his choices. I would not have forgiven them so easily. He is a Wayne now. He's not yours anymore."

"Yes, Father."

When at last she was alone, Talia did not shed tears. Damian was lost to her, but she had always had a contingency for if her son was killed or turned. It was true it hurt more than she expected. The child she would commission, a clone of her son, would still not be Damian. The mother in Talia could not help but mourn.

**Crystal**

When she heard from Alfred that Stephanie and the others were out of town because of a kidnapping, Crystal could not stay still. She checked herself out despite Alfred's assurances. Surprisingly, he met her at the door of the rehab center.

"Miss Stephanie gets the same tone of voice when she won't have her mind changed. I have received a message this morning saying they are all safe and on their way home. They have to stop in New York and file a report in the Hall of Justice, but they will be home in the afternoon."

Crystal nodded, her heart not eased. Gotham had laid claim to Stephanie and Crystal had no more say in what Stephanie could become. Stephanie belonged to Bruce Wayne, to Batman. All the mother could do now was to follow her daughter into that life, to offer her aid. It should not be so easy to do, but Bruce Wayne had made it so, wanting to give one of his children a good relationship with a living parent.

"Mrs. Brown, this is not an easy task you are entering upon," Alfred said. "To be the support of a vigilante can be heartbreaking. They see the worst things imaginable. We see the effects of the worst."

"What do we do?"

"Sometimes all we can do is be there. Sometimes having a home, a safe place, good food, clean clothes, sometimes a little treat. Today, it will be fresh bedding and clothes ready for them, food and a helping hand as they settle back home."

Crystal nodded. "Ok. I chose to do this. Show me what to do."

When they reached the manor, they stopped at the furnished gatehouse for Crystal to put her suitcase in the prepared home, before going up to the vast house. Alfred showed her around the rooms the family used, before they both got to work, freshening sheets, pillows, blankets, digging out favored comfort clothes, setting the favored family room up in a way to permit the family to gather together. They prepared comfort foods from scratch, and by the time they were satisfied with their preparations, they had fallen into a comfortable working situation.

As Alfred was showing her the vast pantry, a buzz startled her.

"Ah, they are home. Let's see what the damage is. Keep calm, Crystal, they may need nothing more than some basic care."

Her heart pounded as she followed him up out of the kitchen into the hall. It was strangely silent as they emerged to find the entire group shuffling their way towards the stairs. Exhaustion dripped off them all. Mr. Wayne had the younger boys under each arm, while her daughter was riding the back of the second boy, a man really, and the eldest son was carrying the other girl in the same way.

"Welcome home, Masters, Misses. Mrs. Brown has come early, you can see. You will find your rooms and clothes prepared. I trust you will all wish to clean up."

They were filthy and smelled of stale sweat. They were also all in costume still.

"I will forgive the no capes above stairs rule this one time, but I expect everything to be taken down stairs. Are there any injuries to address?"

"Just bruises, Alfred. How are you, Crystal?" Bruce said.

"Mom!" Stephanie waved, before sliding off Jason's back. "I smell like stinky boys, but I need a hug!"

"You were sweating too!" Jason taunted, tugging the hood hanging down her back.

"Yes, but Damian and Tim really reek," Stephanie threw over her shoulder. She did smell, but Crystal took the hug anyway, glad to find her daughter looked very healthy for a teenage vigilante. "Glad you're home, Mom! I'll take a shower and come on down. Don't use all the hot water, Cass!"

"Come on kiddo, let's get you cleaned up," Richard said, taking the youngest boy from the father.

"You, too, baby bird," Jason murmured.

"What about my parents?" Timothy asked glancing behind him as if they might be there.

"The Justice League is taking care of their bodies. They will be safe in the Hall of Justice until we can make it public. Come on, you barely slept on the plane."

As the tallest boy pulled the teenager up the stairs, Bruce stayed down, watching them with worried eyes, until all the children were out of sight, and only the occasional echo of a door was a reminder they were even in the vast house. Then the Father turned to the pair of caretakers.

"Jack and Janet Drake are dead. They were lured to Afghanistan as part of Ra's plans for Tim. We don't even have to make a story up. They went to a dangerous place and were kidnapped and killed by terrorists," Bruce sighed, looking as worn out as his children. "Tim outwitted Ra's, which has ended the invitation, and won Ra's' respect."

Crystal's eyes were wide, but she held herself still, and calm. Alfred gently rested a hand on the patriarch's arm. "I will request your attorney tomorrow. Mr. Fox as well. Do you think Master Timothy will want me to arrange the funeral?"

"I'm not sure he's up to making a decision. This is... different from Dick."

"Grief, even guilt, will be normal in this situation," Alfred answered. "Shall I set up the food in the family room?"

"Thank you, Alfred, thank you, Crystal," Bruce said and headed upstairs.

The look on Alfred's face when they were out of sight, matched the pain in Crystal's chest. She may be here for her daughter, but it was clear she would be needed for all of them. Even Bruce held a look on his face that was achingly familiar. It was the face of an emergency room doctor at the end of a lengthy battle to save a life. It was the face of a police officer in a waiting room, wondering if his partner would make it. It was the face of a soldier at the end of a battle.

This was not a game.

They were not playing hero. This was real. Crystal straightened her shoulders. A family needed care.

**Alfred**

Stephanie was down first, her smile hardly dimmed by exhaustion, though the look in her eyes gave lie to the unaffected mien. She hugged her mother and Alfred, but did not spill her usual story about what had happened, restrained by her mother's presence. Too long she had been the mother's caretaker, playing the cheerful daughter. Alfred filed it away. He would need to have alone time with her, so she could vent, and perhaps in time, if Crystal proved steady, the mother would have the right to hear from her daughter first.

Timothy, urged on by Jason, was next, but he was hardly in a state to acknowledge them, much less give up his burdens. He accepted the cup of cocoa offered him before Jason put a blanket around his shoulders and led the weary child into the family room, where he settled Tim on a couch, before dragging a tv table over. There was not much to do for Jason, whose focus was on Tim. The edge Alfred had feared, from being so close to the Pit, was not present.

Cassandra and Damian came down together, with Cass's arm around Damian, a first. Something important had changed in the last twenty-four hours. The lines drawn in the family between Damian and Tim were blurred. Alfred's chest warmed, and then he smiled as Damian and Cass crawled onto the same couch, and the preteen sat next to Tim. The older boy reached out and put his hand on Damian's shoulder and the younger boy leaned into the touch.

By the time Richard came downstairs, Stephanie had thrown herself onto Cass. The couch was overflowing, but it was obvious they all wanted to be together, so Stephanie leapt up and helped Richard push a second couch face to face with the other. There was some shuffling around until all six of them were sitting, laying, or otherwise in the area. Beaming on the sight of the siblings, Alfred pushed several tables at strategic locations around the nest.

"We should have brought our pillows," Jason muttered.

"And blankets," Cass added with a little shiver. "Gotham is a lot colder than Afghanistan."

"Alright, Spoilsport, I think that's our cue," Richard pushed up. "If you want your pillows and blankets, any traps should be disabled."

"I have already removed all pranks from your rooms," Alfred interjected. "Crystal, will you help me bring their stuff down?"

"Of course," the woman said softly, her eyes resting on the two boys in the center of the pile. Alfred permitted himself a smile. Crystal was finding her place already.

Blankets and Pillows were added to the nest, which had grown again with the plush ottomans, so they were all able to lay down. Hot cocoa and warm muffins were fed to those awake, while they took comfort in being together after the travails of the past twenty-eight hours. Alfred and Crystal came and went, adjusting things to make them more comfortable. Wrapped safely around each other, the tense limbs began to relax, fake smiles faded, terror lines smoothed.

When Miss Barbara arrived, not bothering to ring the door bell, Master Bruce had just come down stairs, carrying his own set of pillows.

"Are you all, all right?" Barbara demanded.

"There are some issues left by this, but there are no severe injuries. I assume you have laid the paper trail for the Drakes?" Bruce asked.

"I barely needed to do anything, just a few extra steps for the investigation to follow. Amanda Waller has offered to provide extra cover, 'as a thank you for the gift of fifty assassins'."

"I cannot agree with much of what that woman does, but she seems to have a soft spot for the Bats. We will have to play nice with ARGUS for a while. Do we have word on Arthur Brown?"

"Not yet, but I doubt Talia or Ra's will support him now, so he'll come out of the works soon."

They both entered the room, pausing to look at the nest full of 'Robins'. To Barbara's disgust, the name Robins was used to refer to any group of Batman's partners, if the speaker did not want to say every name involved. Richard popped up to beam at them and beckon them to join as well. With gentle arms, Master Bruce lifted Barbara out of her chair and settled her in the spot that cleared for her. Then he climbed in himself, sliding the half-asleep Cass a little over so he could slide in between the girls and Tim and Damian.

Once he was settled they gravitated to him. Jason was curled into a corner, his head lying above Bruce's, while he curled around the younger boys. Dick was in the other corner, though he had flipped over so his head was lying on Barbara's legs. Cass lay curled against the back of a sofa, her feet tucked under Barbara, with Steph lying angled against Bruce's shoulder.

Alfred dimmed the lights, listening as their breathing all slowed, as their limbs finally relaxed.

The Family was home.

**Thanks for reading! Use the awesome review/comment section to let me know what you think. I welcome constructive critiques, and it is so encouraging to hear that you enjoyed my story.**


	27. Epilogue

**Bringing My Children Home**

**A huge Thank You to everyone who Reviewed, Favorited, and Followed!**

**Disclaimer: I am only borrowing the Bat family to practice my art.**

**Epilogue**

**Damian**

Tim was sleeping on the couch, his head buried against Dick's shoulder. The funeral had been that day, and it had wiped the teenager out. It had infuriated Damian to see. There had been a crowd of rich, spoiled men and women all lying through their teeth to talk about the Drakes pathetic lives, as if they had been paragons.

The only person truly mourning their loss, was their son. Anyone else with real grief felt it more for the orphaned boy.

Drake had stood there and listened to men and women say he had good parents, how much they must have loved him, how amazing their stories about their adventures must have been. It was little wonder that he had shut down before the reception was over. Father had taken Tim away while Dick and Jason played hosts with as much grace as they could. Stephanie had been too angry to play that role, so Damian had gone to the corner she had secluded herself in for the remainder of the cold, ornate affair.

"What would they say if they knew the truth?" She had muttered.

Damian was not sure many would even believe the truth.

Frankly, it no longer mattered. They were gone, and by now Drake was legally fostered by Father. The adoption process had begun, though it would be delayed a little for appearance sake. A week ago, Damian would have resented the more binding arrangement.

Now, it sent relief through him. The Family was together. Drake, Tim, would teach Damian his secrets, when he had recovered from the loss of his parents. They would all teach Damian, praise him, protect him, love him.

"What are you drawing, baby bat?" Cass asked, leaning over the chair to look at his sketchpad.

Seven people were half-sketched on the sheet. Father, Dick, Jason, and Cass were complete, and Damian was starting to add the features for Drake, and the vague shapes that were Stephanie, and Damian himself, waited their turn.

"Our family."

**Dick**

"Look at this," Stephanie jumped in front of Dick, as soon as he arrived home from his meeting with the realtors about purchasing a store front to turn into a gymnastics center. She was holding up three eskrima sticks joined by short chain links. "Bruce said I could give this a try. I've already hit myself in the face a couple times, but I am going to figure this out."

"There is nothing wrong with both of us using eskrima sticks," Dick pointed out, looping an arm around her shoulders. "It's not like we can't use each other's weapons."

"Oh, I know, but I saw a video with this, and thought it would suit me."

"It is hard to control," Dick pointed out.

"That's the point. I'm not as precise as Tim or Cass, nor as blunt as Jason or Damian. I can mimic a lot of what you do, but there are some obvious drawbacks. I have the stamina, but not always the strength. This would extend my reach, as well as give me an edge because it will look like I can't control it."

Dick grinned. "I like that. I'm guessing you are showing this to me, because Bruce mentioned I had some training?"

"Pretty please?" Stephanie fluttered her eyes.

"Anything for family," Dick answered. "Damian hasn't..."

"No, he said he was going to use his blades as his special weapon. He thinks I'm being foolish," Steph grinned. "Cass and Jason approve, of course. Tim suggested I use a mace instead. Not sure if that was approval or sarcasm. Still, I got him to make some comment!"

"Alright, let me go hug the rest and we'll go downstairs and see what you have," Dick replied. His grin did not leave.

He had the best family.

**Stephanie**

"Alright, that's enough," Stephanie declared. Cass and Damian both gave her their respectful attention. Jason did not as he continued to poke Tim, who was just curled up in silence, again. She leapt out of her chair, her homework sliding off the table.

"I need your help, Jason. Tim is trying to sleep. Come on, this is important," Stephanie tugged at Jason. He scowled at her, but when Tim peeked up at them from under his blanket with a look of relief, Jason sighed and got up.

Cass slid into his place, pulling Tim's head on her lap, and stroking his longish hair while she turned the tv on. Damian stuck his tongue out at Jason's back. That was a pleasure to see. Despite Bruce's laid-back disapproval, Stephanie and Dick had been telling Damian all about what it was like to be a preteen. Never mind that Stephanie was a girl and Dick was a circus performer, they had the most experience with being kids.

It was Dick who had said he stuck his tongue out at Bruce, a lot. Stephanie had pretended to be shocked, then started sticking her tongue out, any time one of her siblings was distracted. So far Damian had only ventured to follow her lead with her or Dick, but Jason's obsessive hovering over Tim had annoyed him enough to try with their burly brother. The next step was sliding down banisters.

"Alright, what do you need, Spoilsport?" Jason demanded when they were mostly out of the room.

"You need to go for a walk or a drive or something. Tim doesn't need your constant attendance. I know it's hard to see him like this, but all you are doing is reminding him that he's hurting. Stop babying him. Start treating him like normal again. Even Dick is not this overbearing."

"Steph, it's Tim. He lies about everything," Jason retorted. "You and I both know..."

"Depression is not an uncommon part of grief. If it lasts, then we can take steps. I'm not saying not to care for him, but you will hardly leave him alone," She sighed.

Jason clenched his fist. "No one ever came out and said it at the time, but everyone knew. My step mom might have intentionally overdosed. It had reached the point where even I wasn't enough to keep her there."

"I'm sorry Jason. I understand where you are coming from. You, watching his every move, isn't the answer. He is always tense around you. Even Damian can get him to relax when the kid just sits nearby sketching."

"Ok, Ok. So, what am I supposed to do?"

"Bruce wanted you or Dick to stop by the Wayne Foundation Offices. Go be useful. If I was doing English homework, I would have a whole other answer. Sadly, it's just history."

She shooed him out the door and watched him consider the idea for a moment before heading for the garage.

With that out of the way, she headed back for her homework. Sometimes, Family needed a kick in the pants.

**Jason**

It could be blamed on Stephanie, but her only purpose was to get him out the door.

Nonetheless, Jason Wayne had walked into the Wayne Foundation Offices and discovered a frazzled office manager wondering when they were getting another CEO for the charity foundation, and if he could answer a few questions she had. Two hours later, Jason was in the central office, had requested to borrow an executive assistant from Wayne Enterprises, and was getting a crash course in the Foundations inner workings. By the end of the afternoon the pleasant assistant had made things understandable, Jason had talked the caretaker for the understaffed youth center into staying on, and was reviewing applicants for adding the needed staff.

When he went home, he discovered that Dick had also shown up. Dick had had a spurt of independence and had spent the last couple of nights in his apartment to be near the building he was buying to turn into a gymnastics center. This meant the entire family was present for dinner. Stephanie and Cass claimed either side of Tim, who looked like he had slept most of the afternoon, and Jason was somehow shuffled next to Bruce.

"When are you going to get a new head of the Wayne Foundation? Poor Ms. Kennedy was in tears when I stopped by. I fixed the problems for this afternoon, but they need a better situation."

"There hasn't been a candidate that meets the requirements. Lucius and Tiffany both try to stop by, but it really does need someone who could be there when needed. Tamara has said she could volunteer too, but between her college classes and internship, she has even less time," Bruce replied. "Lucius's children have managed it up until now. I liked that. It felt like it was in the family."

"Jason, you should take the job," Tim suggested absently. "The position does a lot of travel, which would be a good cover for whatever you, Roy, Donna, and Kory are up to. Then it stays in the family."

Jason sputtered a few nonsensical words, trying to tell his brother he was no businessman, and that Jason's private vigilante plans were nothing to do with him. It was surprising that no one had said anything yet. The yet unnamed group was not ready to go public or have to deal with the Justice League being parental.

"We will find a knowledgeable assistant to do the paperwork. Your job will be to smile, talk, and look pretty," and Tim gave a weak smile. "I could help you figure it out. I've helped Bruce out at Wayne Enterprises often."

Considering that Tim had not shown much interest in anything but sleep for the last couple of weeks, Jason realized he was trapped. It was entirely possible Tim was manipulating him, but that would be as good news as showing interest. For Family, Jason would have to try running the foundation. He could hire the other three of his group as bodyguards and assistants. Donna might appreciate seeing Jason in his Wayne Suits.

Yes, this was for Family, after all.

**Cass**

Cass hummed to herself as she carefully wrapped a Christmas present. It was Damian and Stephanie's first Christmas with them. It was a special Christmas. She knew where all her siblings had theirs hidden, but did not go looking for them. It was special to open it without knowing.

Perhaps, Christmas would fill Tim up again.

He looked so empty these days. Much of Tim was missing. No one outside the Family saw, since Tim could put on a different person by changing how he sat, talked, dressed. He wore those other people outside the home, but the real parts of Tim that belonged to those masks were empty.

The cheery shout of 'I'm HOOOMMMEE," informed Cass that her sister was done with school for the day. Bruce would roll his eyes in the study, hiding the secret smile that came every day Stephanie burst into the house like that. Everyone knew he had started going to the study just to hear the two teenagers in school arrive home. Even Crystal had figured it out already.

Cass wondered if she should have tried a year of public school, since both Steph and Tim were graduating this year. If she was going to try, she should have done it this year. No, her online courses were plenty of learning and she did not need to be with the naïve children Steph and Tim talked about. Jason had caught up with school through online, refusing to go back to class.

Damian was at her door, trying not to be seen. She raised a brow, before shoving her brightly wrapped presents under her bed.

"Do you need something, Damian?"

He entered, twisting his hands a little. He wanted something from her. Curious. Dick and Jason were teaching him to defend better, Stephanie was teaching him about being a kid, Tim was at least talking to him about things, but Damian had never come to Cass. Words, for all the good they did, were still foreign at times.

"You wish me to teach you something?" She asked.

His eyes brightened.

"I belong here now, and everyone else has taught me things. I feel, wanted, when they teach me. I want to be the best Robin, when it is my turn, so I should learn from all of you."

She nodded in agreement, watching as Tim went into his bedroom with a half curious glance at Damian in Cass's room.

"All of the family can teach you. I do not know what to teach, though. Everything that HE taught me gets jumbled when I try to explain."

He looked disappointed, so she smiled.

"I can teach you the family. I can teach you to read them, more than just the surface."

**Tim**

It was several weeks before Tim felt anything like grief.

To be honest, he had felt numb. It was the best way to hide from the guilt. At times it felt like the deaths were of strangers. When parents died, everything was supposed to change. Only, it did not change for Tim. It was nothing but a thought in his head. He had some difficulty playing his roles in the public, and it was impossible to play a role for the family. His apathy became a role on its own.

Tim had managed to get his bedroom to himself. Jason's new role as head of the Wayne Foundation was distracting his older brother, giving Tim space to think. Not that Jason was not always texting or calling, but most of the time it was to see if Tim knew how an office worked. It was right to see Jason there. He did not have to do any of the paperwork that had made him protest at first, the budget committee was the Wayne Family, and any other meeting Jason had to attend was usually interesting to him.

When Tim woke that morning three weeks after the funeral for his parents, it suddenly struck him in the gut.

There was no more hope. Those slivers of dreams that suggested Mom and Dad might one day want Tim again, they were nothing more than false hopes now. The chances of getting real parents who wanted to know him, to cheer him in his choices were gone. This time they had left him for good.

When the tears came, they were not for the loss of the parents he had once had. The tears were for the parents he could have had, for all the nights a lonely little boy had gone to bed wondering where his parents were that night, for all the birthdays missed or forgotten, for all the picnics, zoo trips, school milestones never had or celebrated. They were for the bruises, the anger, the selfish cruelty of his parents. Tim Drake cried himself to sleep again. Tim Drake had been another role, another mask to play.

The tears would come and go for several months, but Tim Wayne would wake up to a family eager to know him, to see him, to encourage him.

Family was no longer absent parents. Family was Bruce's proud look when Tim talked circles around a dazed businessman who thought the teenager was an easy target to get information from, Dick's hugs at just those moments when Tim thought he would fall apart, Barbara's snarky challenges daring him to play with her tech, Jason invading his room when he worried about Tim, Cass's delight when she learned another word from him, Stephanie's excitement when Spoiler and Robin got to patrol together. Family was Damian looking up at Tim with eager eyes, wanting to learn the secrets of Robin.

Family was Tim, in a pile of brothers and sisters after a bad patrol, safe in the Nest.

**The End**

**Thanks for reading! I would love to hear what you thought. Hearing from my readers is encouraging, and often inspires me to write. I enjoy constructive critiques that make me think harder about my storylines. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and following Bringing My Children Home. I would love to continue this series, and have several one-shots written that I may post after the holidays. Feel free to message me story or one-shot ideas for this series.**

**I don't write slash, sex, or supernatural stories. I don't like to write much Romance of any kind. I like family and action and hurt/comfort. I can't promise to write your prompt, but you may inspire me to write something.**

**Again, thanks for reading and reviewing!**


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